Federal government promises to deliver greater generational fairness in budget 2024
Today Prime Minister Trudeau announced that the 2024 federal budget will focus on “fairness for every generation.”
Never before has a government been bold enough to organize their budget to respond to the problem that “hard work isn’t paying off [today] like it did for previous generations.”
For young people across Canada struggling with unaffordable housing and other costs that have risen far faster than earnings from paid work, this is a welcome validation of the systemic root causes of the challenges they face.
“The significance of this new commitment cannot be overstated,” said Dr. Paul Kershaw, Gen Squeeze Founder and UBC policy professor. “Politicians of all party stripes have worried for years about unaffordable housing and child care, long lines of patients waiting for doctors, structural government deficits, and climate change. Never before has a government acknowledged these are all symptoms of a common underlying disease: generational unfairness.”
By bringing a generational fairness lens to the federal budget, Canadians are better positioned to recognize that previous governments didn’t plan well enough for all age groups, or steward adequately Canada’s commitment to a healthy childhood, home and planet.
There’s no escaping that short-sighted policy decisions, many from decades ago, are weighing down today’s budgets, explained Andrea Long, Senior Director of Research and Knowledge Mobilization.
“As Gen Squeeze has regularly observed, too often governments have chosen to shore up their short-term spending plans by slowing investments in the wellbeing of younger age groups, and leaving unpaid government bills for our kids and grandchildren to pay,” Long said.
While no single budget will be able to fully fix problems that have been decades in the making, we are more optimistic than ever that Canada can restore a proud tradition of working for all generations.
On behalf of our network of 43,000 at Generation Squeeze, we extend our thanks to the Prime Minister and his Cabinet for listening to the call to make Canada work for all generations. We’ve been proud to amplify the thousands of voices calling for generational fairness, and are proud today to acknowledge that the PM and Parliament are listening carefully, and responding urgently.
