Budget 2025 A Modest Step Toward Generational Fairness for Millennials and Gen Z
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The federal budget for 2025 focuses on how to address—or fails to address—the unique financial challenges faced by Millennials and Generation Z Canadians. These younger cohorts are grappling with high housing costs, stagnating wages, and the rising cost of raising children, and many feel the promises of middle-class security that previous generations enjoyed are out of reach. The budget is presented against this backdrop of generational frustration and affordability stress.
In response, the budget introduces measures intended to relieve some pressure: increased investment in affordable-housing supply, enhancements to child-care and family supports, and targeted tuition or student-aid reforms. At the same time, the scale of these new supports is modest relative to the size of the affordability gap, and many of the measures are more incremental than transformative. While young people may gain some relief, the deeper structural issues—such as long-term wage growth and asset-accumulation challenges—remain largely unaddressed.
Finally, the budget’s generational impact is mixed. On one hand, the government signals it is aware of the inequality and generational divide, and is trying to support younger Canadians. On the other hand, critics say the policy falls short of what is required to truly shift outcomes for Millennials and Gen Z — meaning the promise of “generational fairness” remains unfulfilled for now. Unless future budgets deepen and widen these supports, younger Canadians may continue to carry a disproportionate share of economic risk.
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