Welcome to Need to Know, The Hub’s twice-weekly roundup of expert insights into the biggest economic stories, political news, and policy developments that Hub readers need to be keeping their eyes on.
What’s holding young Canadians back? A lot
By Matt Spoke, a contributor to Project Ontario and a Toronto real estate developer
In 1960, nearly 60 percent of Canadians were married and owned a home by the age of 30. By 2020, that number had fallen to just 15 percent. This isn’t just a marginal change. This represents a total collapse of what used to be considered a normal life trajectory.
Graphic credit: Janice Nelson
The reasons are structural. Housing costs have outpaced incomes for over two decades. Urban planning policies (from exclusionary zoning to costly development charges) have made it harder and more expensive to build homes where people want to live. Labour markets have shifted too: the transition from school to work has become longer, riskier, and less linear. Student debt is up. Wages are flat. Entry-level jobs that once launched careers have been replaced by precarious service work or credential creep.
Add it all up, and young Canadians are stuck in a holding pattern. They’re not less ambitious. They’re not unwilling to work. They’re just facing a system that no longer rewards effort the way it once did.
And yet political responses remain timid. Policies treat symptoms instead of causes: a small tax credit here, a pilot program there. Meanwhile, the institutions most responsible for this decline—housing regulation, labour policy, higher education, childcare systems—remain largely untouched.
This is the real generational divide in Canada today. Not culture, but opportunity.
