Government Spending & Taxes

The Age of Eligibility for Public Retirement Programs in the OECD finds that Canada is out of step with most major industrialized countries—and the other G7 nations—which are increasing the age of eligibility for public retirement programs. In fact, of the 22 high-income industrialized countries (apart from Canada) in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 18 of them—82 per cent—are increasing the age of eligibility for government retirement programs.

The Impact of Interprovincial Migration of Seniors on Provincial Health Care Spending finds that migrating seniors have increased B.C.’s health-care costs by more than $7.0 billion over the past 36 years, while effectively saving Quebec $6.0 billion. That’s because Canadians pay most of their lifetime taxes during their working lives, but consume most of their health-care costs after they retire. B.C. and five other provinces saw a net inflow of seniors since 1980, while Quebec and the other provinces saw a net outflow.

Canada’s Aging Population and Implications for Government Finances finds that the aging population will put significant stress on government spending programs and could increase deficits for federal and provincial governments to an estimated $143 billion by 2045—three and a half times larger than total federal and provincial government deficits in 2017.