There’s an urgent need for leadership on our aging society

It’s an issue that cannot wait: how do we deal with the pressing challenges of an aging of society and avoid the looming fiscal costs and social failure that we face unless we get serious.

The critical point is that new policies take time, and we are running out of time. Last year, the front wave of Baby Boomers reached their 75th birthday, and by 2041, there will be 2.1 million Canadians 85 or older, the age by which many more seniors need more care, compared to 844,000 now. Another 4.6 million Canadians will be 65-74 and 4.2 million Canadians will be 75-84. That’s just 20 years from now, during which time the seniors population will grow from 17.5 per cent of the population to almost 25 per cent.Photograph courtesy of Pixabay

Opinion

BY DAVID CRANE

January 25, 2021

TORONTO—It’s an issue that cannot wait: how do we deal with the pressing challenges of an aging of society and avoid the looming fiscal costs and social failure that we face unless we get serious? Two recent reports, by experts in the field, argue that we must act now to design the policies nee...

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