By Gazette Staff
November 28th, 2025
BURLINGTON,ON
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has fought for decades to achieve income equality. This article is the first in a series they will be doing on how we as Canadians can get to the point where our students can have what their parents and grandparents had: income security.
If you’re wondering why young people are anxious, angry, or disengaging, income inequality is the tie that binds.
“It’s time to make inequality unacceptable: the top 20% Account for 64.8% of Canada’s total net worth.
“New Statistics Canada data confirms something you probably already intuitively know: income inequality remains at a record high. And like you, we’re fed up with it.
“Canada’s wealthiest households (the top 20 per cent) now account for 64.8 per cent of Canada’s total net worth. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) argues: That’s outrageous!
“It’s a far different story at the bottom of the wealth ladder: the least wealthy (the bottom 40 per cent) in Canada account for only 3.3 per cent of Canada’s total net worth.
“It’s an everlasting story—one we’ve been talking about at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) since 2006, when we broke open a national conversation about inequality through our Growing Gap project.
It’s such a betrayal of our responsibility to future generations.
“We exposed how new generations of Canadians couldn’t live the dream so many in their parents’ or grandparents’ generation took for granted: home ownership, steady and secure work, decent pay, retirement security.
“It’s such a betrayal of our responsibility to future generations. But the rich just keep getting richer. Canada still tolerates outrageous levels of poverty and working poverty.
“The steep cost of housing is the symbol for a generation of young Canadians who can’t afford to get into the market. But becoming a tenant instead of an owner is also fraught: in the absence of meaningful rent control mechanisms, the rental market is no safe haven.
“Canada’s youngest households’ debt-to-income ratio hit 178.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2025. Their average disposable income grew slower than any other age group—mostly because their wages are going down.
“You might think it’s a temporary problem; that as they grow older they’ll earn more and own stuff. For too many, that dream is far beyond their grasp. Households in the 35- to 44-year-old age bracket have the highest debt-to-income ratio in Canada, at 254.2 per cent.
omething’s got to give. That’s why the CCPA is kickstarting Growing Gap 2.0, building on its original focus on the rich and the rest of us.”
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I whole heartedly agree with Philips comments. We are already too far along down the socialist road and further. Canada needs to attract and retain the best. Recent reports suggest that many of the brightest and most highly educated that choose Canada are leaving….
The article has a perspective that is widely held but not very nuanced. Fixing something, in my opinion, requires a detailed understanding of the problem and the causes. Solutions will need to be balanced with the trade-offs that affect other aspects of our lives. With this in mind is the problem that some people do not have enough wealth or that some people have to much? An alternative perspective is that the wealth gap is a symptom of the amount of wealth in our society and not the cause of some having lower wealth. Life is complicated and good policy extremely challenging.
First of all, we need to understand how much that top 20% of wealthy individuals is worth. Canadian data shows that each of those families is worth an average of $3.4 million, with a lower family worth threshold of $1.3 million.
That includes much of the so-called middle-class; in the GTA, a person who owns a single-family dwelling outright is likely in the top 20%. And how did they create that wealth? Higher education and hard work (the typical entrepreneur or highly skilled professional is likely working much more than the average 40 hours per week) are two of the most prevalent criteria that have allowed this group to generate the income that allowed them to create this wealth.
As long as some people have more intelligence, have a greater drive to succeed, and are prepared to work harder, income and wealth inequality will continue to be a fact of life. Otherwise, you are left with the proposition that people should not be rewarded with the fruits of their own efforts and the inevitable result of such a view will be mediocrity and declining standards of living.