News & Insights

Ottawa recently released what it describes as the “most ambitious” housing plan in over 75 years. In many ways, it delivers. But for all its ambition on building homes, the plan is silent on deeper tensions that drive unaffordability – especially the generational dynamics at its core.

Home ownership among young Canadians (under age 35) has recently surged to 44%, the highest level in five decades! 18% of them are mortgage-free. This indicates Canada may be drifting from a meritocracy toward a landed aristocracy, where access to secure housing increasingly depends on being born into the right family.

Canadian politicians are sidestepping the most important – and politically dangerous – question in our housing debate: Should home prices rise, stall or fall? Until we answer it, we can’t fix what’s broken in Canada’s housing system.

With young people facing heavy rents and oversized mortgages for the foreseeable future, compensation is overdue. Millennials and Gen Z deserve a greater share of the $1.5-trillion windfall generated by rising home values since boomers were young adults.

The fiscal pressures created by our aging population are driving Ontario’s red ink – as they are for many governments across Canada. The primary driver of Ontario’s deficit is easy to obscure when the province continues to fail to report the age breakdown of public spending. This isn’t just an oversight. It’s an institutional failure to publish data that would expose some of the most important trends shaping our fiscal future.

The Liberal election platform recognized that Canada no longer works for all generations. As Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new government appoints Ministers and sets out plans, solutions to this national challenge must be at the forefront of our efforts to protect, build, and unite Canada.

The Generation Squeeze Lab at UBC created the “Dupe-o-Meter” to help voters distinguish magical thinking from evidence-based election promises. We assess all platform projections in light of what Ottawa already budgeted in 2024 to share important insights.

Tariffs threaten jobs. Market volatility threatens savings. Misleading pronouncements about the risks of Western separation threatens Canadian democracy on which we rely to manage these economic risks.

The political bargain we’ve struck in Canada obliges younger people to compromise their standard of living to protect the housing wealth accumulated by homeowners who have come before them. It’s time to acknowledge this – and to compensate young people for their profound expression of intergenerational solidarity.