News & Insights

The Bloc Québécois wants to add billions to Old Age Security for rich and poor seniors alike but a new poll suggests most Canadians, including retirees, have other priorities. Canadians want Ottawa to redesign OAS so that it reduces spending on affluent retirees and repurposes the savings to eliminate poverty among seniors, help younger generations and reduce the deficit.

Rejecting an additional $16 billion in poorly targeted and costly retiree income benefits is a big victory, and we should be proud of our contribution to it. But even as we celebrate this accomplishment, we can’t let up on next steps.

New poll finds that about 3/4 of Canadians support reducing benefits for retirees with incomes over $100k, in order to make funds available for a win-win-win plan to eliminate seniors’ poverty, invest in younger people, and reduce the deficit.

Ottawa may add billions to Old Age Security for rich and poor seniors alike – an increase that would be funded disproportionately by younger Canadians. Instead, Generation Squeeze believes OAS reform can deliver real help for retirees with low incomes and affluent boomers can play a big role.

If the Bloc gets its way, younger Canadians will be on the hook to pay even more taxes for boomers’ OAS benefits. This would compound the unpaid bills they already inherit because governments failed decades ago to raise enough revenue to pay for the healthy retirement that boomers deserve.

This week, the United Nations enacted the Declaration on Future Generations, which obliges all nations to govern as Good Ancestors. To support its implementation here at home, Generation Squeeze prepared Canada’s first-ever Report Card on our federal government’s 2024 budget commitment to "Fairness for Every Generation."

Generation Squeeze had a unique opportunity this week to join world leaders at the United Nations in New York for a global milestone event — the adoption of the first ever Declaration on Future Generations. The Declaration affirms the responsibilities we collectively hold today to those who follow, calling on governments at all levels to “safeguard the needs and interests of future generations.”

Student struggles with unaffordable housing, rising food-bank use and debt are tell-tale signs that the Canadian university sector must improve its advocacy. Economic precarity should not be the price required to get a degree in this country.

Taking care of our kids is one of society’s most important shared responsibilities. Whether or not we’re parents, we’re all caregivers as citizens. Standing behind adequate and inclusive supports for parents is one way we can each do our part to help our youngest citizens thrive, and ensure that every family has what they need to secure the best possible outcomes for their children.