News & Insights

Affordability is a top concern for Alberta voters. So it is surprising that the United Conservative Party and the NDP have blind spots on this issue, especially when it comes to younger Albertans. 

Canada’s addiction to high and rising home prices has made our country lazy when it comes to planning for economic growth. This has hurt the finances of younger Canadians and newcomers, while ballooning the wealth of older homeowners.

Alberta’s United Conservative Party delivers one of the most generationally unfair budgets in Canada, by legislating a large gap in spending between citizens age 65-plus and those under age 45.

Our age of retirement, 65, is currently five years lower than where it stood when Ottawa launched Old Age Security (OAS) in 1952, even though average life expectancy has increased 14 yearsover the same period. It’s time to strengthen our pension system by considering a potential win-win tradeoff: slightly longer work lives for shorter workweeks.

Our research identifies low-interest rates as a contributing force driving the run-up in home prices. So we were not surprised to see the market cool off when The Bank of Canada increased interest rates, undermining the cheap credit system that helped buyers bid up home prices. The Bank of Canada managed to do the unthinkable - cool off one of the world's hottest housing markets - by raising interest rates. So why do they rarely ever mention this?

At a time when politicians are decrying Canada’s housing affordability crisis, it may come as a surprise that we choose to subsidize so generously many of the most securely housed Canadians through a home ownership tax shelter. A new study by Generation Squeeze Founder, Dr. Paul Kershaw, published by the Canadian Tax Journal revisits the Principal Residence Exemption (PRE), along with public support for reducing the home ownership tax shelter.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland emphasized the need for “fiscal restraint” in her recent budget. But that’s not what she delivered in a budget which includes $132-billion in deficit spending over the next five years. This adds about $6,100 in government debt for every Canadian under age 45 – most of which pays for spending used by the aging population. The Finance Minister piles on this debt partly because her budget turns a blind eye to the housing wealth accumulated by many in older generations.

A Gen Squeeze network member recently wrote to us to ask for more information about our analysis of spending by age in the recent federal budget. She wanted to know how we concluded that the bulk of new federal spending goes to supporting retirees ($190 billion by 2027/28). This is a great question, so we thought we’d share the answer with everyone.