Cabinet retreat recap: why Canada needs a Generational Fairness Council
Discover more from Generation Squeeze
Cabinet retreat recap: why Canada needs a Generational Fairness Council
Older generations’ policy chickens are coming home to roost. Cleaning up the coop isn’t a ‘youth issue.’
Last week Gen Squeeze Founder and UBC Professor Paul Kershaw briefed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his new cabinet on how generational unfairness drives many of Canada’s biggest problems. The prime minister emerged from the retreat with a message for young people: “We owe it to you to take action.”
We couldn’t agree more. All parties should prioritize remedying younger Canadians’ deteriorating wellbeing. But we won’t pick the right remedies if we misdiagnose problems—like unaffordable housing—as “youth issues.”
Older generations need to take the prime minister’s message to heart too. Today’s “youth issues” took root decades before millennials tasted their first lattes. Our housing crisis, climate crisis, medical care crisis, and affordability crisis all started on older Canadians’ watch.
We owe it to you to take action.
Young people didn’t make this mess. They can’t clean it up alone. All generations must work together to make Canada work fairly for all generations.
That’s why we’re asking Ottawa to create a Generational Fairness Council to expose and heal the intergenerational fault lines eroding our country’s prosperity and promise. This kind of big-picture change is already happening in other countries—like Wales, the UK, and Australia. This council will give all Canadians a turn to get a better generational deal.
Are you with us?
What’s next?
Talk to us! In the coming weeks, we’ll be following up with ministers and bringing this proposal to other parties, because generational fairness cuts across the political spectrum. Voicing your support and sharing your ideas with us can help us push this proposal across the finish line. We want to know:
What would you want to include in the mandate of a Generational Fairness Council?
What are the top issues you think this council should address?
In the news
Stay tuned for Dr. Kershaw’s latest Globe & Mail column on these themes. Watch and listen to his reflections on the cabinet retreat:
Cabinet retreat recap: why Canada needs a Generational Fairness Council
When prices are sky high, instead of giving away housing, make what we work for count for something. We pay loads of money to rent, you can start putting caps on rent to help but I think, our years of renting should be worth something. Why can't the rent we pay on time, go towards our credit? Why can't that credit be used to buy homes. Our rent we pay should count for something!
Canada is crying out for emergency service workers, but all day cares are set for 9-5 jobs.. but all emergency service work, and health care jobs are shift work based. Whereby excluding people who have children, to fill this demand. I had to give up a full time union job with benefits because day cares aren't open weekends or evenings..
So now my rent is harder to make, and worthless for my future, and my dreams of owning a home seem hopless because I don't have my full time job anymore.
I won't want a handout, I want to be able to use the skills I have to create a better future for my family, and it's frustrating when my efforts are hobbled by a broken system.