Together we’ve made a great deal of progress securing a more generationally fair Canada. Now, it’s time to protect these advances by ensuring that Canadians are able to hold governments accountable for the wellbeing of present and future generations.
To achieve this goal, generational fairness must be securely embedded in government processes and institutions, so that it becomes a guiding principle for all decisions – not a passing fancy that can be discarded when expedient for the government of the day.
The starting point is legislation. Add your name to join us in calling for a law that creates and protects tools to cement a generational lens in Canadian governance.
Legislation to safeguard the wellbeing of present and future generations will create a legally-binding common purpose for Canada’s national government: to act as good ancestors to all those who follow us. Good ancestors make sure spending and policy decisions consider the implications of the choices we make now for our kids, our grandchildren, and future generations.
Securing a good quality of life for all ages means that actions today can't deny the ability of future generations to meet their needs, as Indigenous leaders have long affirmed in the seven generations principle. Legislation will ensure our public sector delivers on this commitment, helping to create a Canada that we all want to live in – today and tomorrow.
Canada would not be going it alone on enacting legislation to safeguard wellbeing for all generations.
Wales passed the Well-being of Future Generations Act in 2015. In 2024, United Nations Member States – including Canada – adopted the Declaration on Future Generations that commits governments to “safeguard the needs and interests of future generations.” Plus, we've already started down this path with a landmark 2024 federal budget affirming the need for Fairness for Every Generation. Legislation is the next step.
"Delaying action makes change more expensive and difficult. Future generations will live with the consequences of our decisions."
Securing and advancing wellbeing for all generations must be part of the mandate of a specific Minister.
First, a dedicated Minister will ensure that fairness between generations is a priority at the center of government. Ministerial-level responsibility demonstrates that it isn’t a peripheral or passing concern, but a fundamental and ongoing consideration in policy-making.
Second, a dedicated Minister will serve as the champion for generational fairness at the Cabinet table. Cabinet is where key policy and spending decisions are made, and where trade-offs between options are discussed. The kind of long-term thinking required to make fair decisions about advancing wellbeing for all generations should inform all Cabinet debate.
Third, Ministerial responsibility creates obligations to document investments and results, via annual departmental planning and reporting requirements. A dedicated Minister will go a long way towards creating the accountability and transparency Canadians should expect.
Since the policy changes needed to address intergenerational tensions span many federal departments, ideally the designated Minister would sit within a cross-cutting department, like Finance or Treasury.
A Commissioner responsible for assessing whether Canada is acting fairly towards all generations
Similar to the model already in place for the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development (CESD), Canada needs an arm’s length, independent Commissioner for generational fairness.
Like the CESD, the Commissioner would be created within the Office of the Auditor General, with a mandate to deliver non-partisan analysis and recommendations on the state of generational fairness in Canada, and the efforts the government is making to achieve it. To ensure transparency for all elected officials and for Canadians, the Commissioner will report directly to parliament.
The Commissioner will support the government to think longer-term about policy and fiscal priorities, and to engage with citizens to promote open dialogue. There are other models to consider when creating this position. The EU recently appointed its first Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, following the example of Wales in 2015. Several other countries have similar formal roles, including Malta, Gibraltar and Hungary.
An external Advisory body to deliver independent advice
A permanent Advisory group will help make sure that government plans to promote wellbeing for present and future generations are grounded in evidence and informed by the experiences of Canadians.
Composed of diverse members with relevant public policy and budgetary expertise, the Advisory will provide recommend policy and budgetary reforms to better support people of all ages to thrive. Similar to the existing Net-Zero Advisory Body, it will operate independently of electoral politics to ensure the delivery of credible and independent intergenerational analysis.
Legislation to safeguard wellbeing for all generations will require federal departments to set and report on specific wellbeing objectives. This means monitoring the generational impacts of existing and new policies, as well as the potential for trade-offs between short- and long-term wellbeing. This analysis and reporting will help expose where the decisions we make today over-extract from our shared fiscal, planetary and housing resources – resources on which younger and future generations also will depend for their lives and livelihoods.
Canada’s Quality of Life Framework already delivers some valuable data to identify indicators and track progress, though more needs to be done to analyze government spending by age, and assess how Canada invests in wellbeing and prevention compared to illness treatment. Fortunately, Gen Squeeze has evidence-based methods for each of these themes that could easily be adopted.
In 2025, Canadian voters elected the first 4 MPs born in the 21st century. They join 34 other MPs under age 40. These younger voices are still very much the minority in Parliament, at just 11% of all elected members.
To ensure a fair hearing of issues affecting their generations, a cross-party committee of Millennial and Gen Z MPs should serve as a catalyst for building a Canada where all ages can thrive.
All major federal parties already acknowledge the escalating challenges faced by many young people – like unaffordable housing, rising student debt, lack of child care, increasing unemployment, growing climate anxiety and declining hopefulness and happiness. Bringing together young MPs to shine a light on these issues will inform and stimulate debate, document the value-add of investing in the future prospects of younger generations, and educate other parliamentarians and the public on intergenerationally fair ways to support Canada’s economy and environment at a time of population aging.
The newly created Cabinet Committee on Quality of Life and Wellbeing can provide political leadership at the Cabinet table.
A focus on long-term wellbeing for present and future generations is consistent with the committee’s mandate to “augment the overall quality of life and well-being of Canadians.” Cabinet leadership also will help pave the way for Canada to deliver on its commitment to “safeguard the needs and interests of future generations” under the 2024 UN Declaration on Future Generations. Gen Squeeze's 2024 report card make clear that Ottawa has a great deal left to do.
A new legal framework to ensure all generations are treated fairly is an ambitious systems-change goal with potential to affect millions - not just today, but for generations to come. We won't achieve this goal overnight, but just like you, we're patient when it comes to working towards the big payoff.
Check out the top ways you can help nudge the system to change in the direction we want, to build a Canada in which present and future generations can thrive.
Gen Squeeze Founder Paul Kershaw joins Canadian and international thinkers to talk about why we need legislation to protect the wellbeing of all generations. Learn more about what Paul shared.
Generation Squeeze had a unique opportunity to join world leaders at the United Nations in New York for a global milestone event — the adoption of the first ever Declaration on Future Generations. The Declaration affirms the responsibilities we collectively hold today to those who follow, calling on governments at all levels to “safeguard the needs and interests of future generations.”
In this episode of Hard Truths, we spoke with Derek Walker, Wales' Future Generations Commissioner. He talks about his role and goals; his country’s new healthcare strategy; and the difficult task of balancing the needs of people struggling to pay their bills now with the needs of people not yet born. He also reflects on the achievements of his predecessor, Sophie Howe, who compelled the country to scrap plans for a new highway in favour of greater investment in public and active transportation.
A lot of Canada's current crises were caused in part by past governments failing to think beyond election cycles. So how can we make governments think more long term and consider the impact of their decisions on future generations? To find out, we spoke with Jerry DeMarco, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development in Canada’s Office of the Auditor General.
This year's budget commitment to "Fairness for Every Generation" was a game changer, but the freighter of government changes course slowly. Now we're calling for some institutional tugboats that can keep prodding the federal government to follow through on its promise to make Canada work for all generations.
