Ottawa, ON – Last week, Mark Carney told a room filled with the next generation that “your future will not be the same as my past,” which “was a time of optimism, of hope, and of promise.” He brutally declared that his budget would demand “sacrifices” from young Canadians.

After 10 years, this generation has sacrificed enough.

Homeownership

Young Canadians are the first generation that has been unable to afford homeownership. 88 per cent of renters believe owning a home is out of reach. Half of millennials and two-thirds of Gen Z have considered delaying starting a family because they can’t afford a suitable home.

That’s because home prices have risen 32 per cent faster than incomes in Canada since the Liberals took office, turning Canada into the most unaffordable housing market in the G7. Home ownership now costs 53.6 per cent of the median household income; 89.2 per cent in Vancouver and 66.4 per cent in Toronto. Carney’s own housing agency says Canadians shouldn’t spend more than 32 per cent.

In our largest cities, the price of an average home is now 13.5 times the median income in Vancouver and 10.4 times in Toronto. In those two cities, it now takes a minimum income of $232,700 in Vancouver and $198,030 in Toronto to buy the average home.

Just as the ladder of homeownership was being pulled up in front of youth, the bottom fell out. New housing sales in our major cities – the leading indicator of housing construction – have collapsed by more than half in the first three quarters of 2025 compared to 2024, and dropped 74 per cent compared to a ten-year average.

This is the new housing crisis: buyers still can’t afford to buy, while builders can’t afford to build. As homebuilders can’t afford to build new homes, workers are getting laid off, with the Canadian Homebuilders Association reporting that 41 per cent of builders surveyed are laying off workers, while in Ontario, that number is 64 per cent. 

Employment

It’s not just builders who are being put out of work. Youth are facing an unemployment crisis with more than 460,000 young Canadians (those between 15 and 24) out of work. The youth unemployment rate rose to 14.7 per cent in September 2025, an increase from 13.7 per cent in March and the highest since September 2010 (outside the pandemic).

A report from Desjardins confirmed what Canadians have long known: the Liberals’ massive increase in non-permanent residents, including temporary foreign workers, created a “deluge of available labour” that “well outpaced demand, putting upward pressure on the youth unemployment rate.”

What’s even worse is that the youth employment rate fell to 53.6 per cent in July 2025, its lowest since November 1998 (excluding pandemic years). It rose, but only slightly, to 53.8 per cent in September, as youth are not only not getting hired, but giving up on searching for jobs.

That’s after searching during the worst summer for student jobs since the Great Recession (excluding the pandemic). From May to August 2025, the unemployment rate for returning students averaged 17.9 per cent, its highest since 2009. These jobs used to allow youth to pay for tuition, groceries and rent when they went back to school.

Cost of Living

As their savings dried up, their costs were driven up. Grocery prices shot up 4 per cent year-over-year in September, double the Bank of Canada’s target. Fresh and frozen beef rose 14 per cent year-over-year, while meat overall increased 6.6 per cent.

While Canadians have been paying more at the grocery store, rents also surged 4.8 per cent across Canada year-over-year. 49 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 are now spending over half their income on rent, despite having the weakest budgets. Only 22 per cent of renters are paying 30 per cent or less of their incomes on rent.

Getting squeezed by prices at the grocery store and on a place to live has pushed a record number of people to food banks. Food Banks Canada reports that 2,165,766 million visits were made in March, the highest in Canadian history. Nearly 712,000 of those visits were made by children, who now make up one-third of food bank clients.

Even those with full-time jobs are lining up, with nearly one in five visitors being employed but still unable to afford food. The report found “employment is no longer a reliable buffer against poverty”, and Canada is becoming “a country where hunger is normalized”.

One food bank user said that “the reliance on food banks is no longer short-term or crisis-based for many — it has become an ongoing necessity to survive.” They aren’t the only ones: almost 60 percent of Canadians aged 18 to 44 worry about being able to keep up with the cost of housing.

Young people shouldn’t have to live like this, but Canadians can change it. Conservatives will turn the hurt of the last decade into hope for the future.