Budget Season Community Call

Plus, reflections from a Gen Squeeze leader

Today’s newsletter features Kaitlyn Shannon, Gen Squeeze Vice Chair, on why she values being part of our community and how she got involved in the organization. But first, a couple of announcements.

---

Next Community Call: February 28

Earlier this month we highlighted that we’re about to dive into budget season, when governments release their yearly spending plans. Since many of the generational tensions weighing on our housing market, medical system, and climate are reinforced by decisions governments make in their budgets, we thought this would be the perfect moment for our next Community Call.

Join us on February 28 for hot-off-the-press commentary on the BC budget, and our forecast on what to expect in budgets to come. You'll have a chance to connect with other like-minded advocates and share questions and ideas about this year's budget winners and losers. You can register here for free.

Give Us Your Feedback

As a Gen Squeeze Substack subscriber, you know that Community Calls aren’t the only place to share your thoughts with us. We look forward to dialogue with you every week in the comment section of posts like this one.

Since you’re among our most active readers and supporters, we’d really like to hear from you about this Substack channel. It’s been up and running for a few months now, and we are excited about how things are going. We hoped that this could become a space for people who are passionate about creating a better Canada to get together to share ideas, and that’s exactly what’s happening. There’s been so many great discussions, and we’ve learned so much from you all. Some of your ideas have been so powerful that Paul has taken them into the highest offices in our country, to help make his arguments more convincing (more details on this to come).

With that being said, we’re still looking to make improvements – and we need your help! Please fill out the poll below to let us know how often you want to receive these newsletters. We’ll be sending out more polls like this, from time to time, which will help us to better tailor this space to what the community is looking for.

Now, time to get into Kaitlyn’s story.

---

Embracing Complexity & Digging into the Data 

Growing up in South Surrey, I had the privilege of studying and working across Canada and internationally before returning to BC, where I’ve lived for the last 9 years, captivated by the natural beauty of this place. I met Dr. Paul Kershaw when I was working at the University of British Columbia, and learned about the work of the organization he founded, Generation Squeeze. 

My time living in a variety of different places helped me to embrace new ways of thinking and emphasized that there are many ways to organize a society. As my mom often reflected when I was growing up, there is a lot of “grey” in the world, and we should be open to nuance, ambiguity, and no “right” answer. In a world of increasing polarization, I think we could all benefit from the reminder that we have more in common than we might suspect at first glance. 

As a new parent and a renter in an increasingly unaffordable city, I benefit directly from policies that Gen Squeeze has supported, including parental leave for self-employed individuals and $10-a-day childcare. But my personal situation is just one data point. What I appreciate most about Gen Squeeze is the fact that it is a university-community collaboration. Policy recommendations put forward by Gen Squeeze are directly connected to rigorous academic research conducted at UBC. When thinking about how to structure our society, we are faced with extremely complex social and economic challenges. Research won’t tell us the “right” answer, but understanding the data and the evidence equips us with the knowledge and insights we need to have an informed conversation about our future. 

In the face of a complicated and uncertain future, it’s easy to fall prey to feelings of victimhood. But I think the way forward is to focus on solutions and creative ways of thinking. We need to ask the tough questions to understand our current situation, how we got here, and what choices we have about our future. Based on academic research, Gen Squeeze provides concrete policy solutions intended to bring fairness and equity to our society. Rather than push people apart, Gen Squeeze seeks to bring together people of all generations to advocate for a future where we can all thrive. 

---

That’s all for this time, thanks for reading!