Why it seems like you can never get ahead (Hint: It’s not your streaming subscription)

Indeed, open any finance section and you’ll find articles on budgeting and money-saving tips. Reading these, you’d think the key to financial stability was avoiding avocado toast. Aside from being unrealistic and patronizing, this advice and more like it—brew your coffee at home, cancel unused subscriptions—places the onus on individual Canadians. But while you’re clipping coupons and buying off-brand groceries, a handful of families are hoovering up the wealth.

Even if you don’t pay much attention to the politics of the economy, you already know you’ve got to have money to make money. You put a hundred bucks in a savings account, and the very next month you’re earning interest on your deposit plus the savings you earned. Now do that same thing with a million bucks (or a billion!) and stick it in investments with higher returns. 

The rich get richer. A lot richer.

Income gap vs. wealth gap

The income gap isn’t the same thing as the wealth gap. An income gap, according to Statistics Canada, “is defined as the difference in the share of disposable income between households in the top 40% of the income distribution and the bottom 40%.” This quote comes from their 2025 report that showed a record high gap of 49.0 points in the first quarter.

A wealth gap looks at household or family assets as a whole, as opposed to the disposable income measured in the income gap.

There’s far more reporting by Statistics Canada and others about the income gap than the wealth gap, but one source is the High-net-worth Family Database (HFD) by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO). It “provides a method to address gaps and underreporting in data on high-net-worth individuals which would otherwise distort analysis of wealth distribution.” A 2025 update on 2023 data showed that the top 1% of families own 23.8% of the net wealth in Canada.

The latest numbers 

At this point, the wealth gap might as well be called the wealth abyss. Those at the bottom can’t believably be said to live in the same universe as those at the top.

The inequality is staggering enough that Oxfam published a 2026 report called “The Rise of the super-rich: The state of inequality in Canada.” According to them, the richest 1% in Canada—those whose net worth is at least $7 million—hold nearly $1.25 trillion in wealth, almost as much as the bottom 80% combined.

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Not content with the toothless phrase “super-rich”, in 2026 Canadians for Tax Fairness and BC Policy Solutions released “The new robber barons: A quarter century of wealth concentration in Canada.” They report that in 2023, the top 0.01% (1,685 families) held $448.5 million, or 4,041 times the amount of a typical family in the bottom 50% (8.4 million families).

Why you’re so broke (it’s not the lattes)

The numbers are even more scandalous when you focus on those at the top of the chasm. Canadians for Tax Fairness and BC Policy Solutions report that in 2023, 86 billionaire families held as much wealth as Canada’s 6.2 million least wealthy families. That’s a ratio of 1:72,093, meaning that each billionaire family held as much wealth as 72,093 of the least wealthy families.

In 2024, Canada’s billionaires grew their cumulative wealth by more than $309 million every single day, according to Oxfam. The wealth of Canada’s richest 40 billionaires grew by almost $95 billion, or more than 20%, in 2024 and 2025.

Entire careers are spent explaining how this works, but here are the Coles Notes. In Canada, there’s a billionaire class made up of a handful of families who control services and necessities. Galen Weston ($20.6 billion) of Loblaws is a popular villain, but while his family sells groceries, the Thompson family ($90.2 billion) has media, the Irving family ($15.8 billion) has oil, and the Rogers family ($11.9 billion) has telecommunications.

Canadians need these products and services to live their lives, and there’s little regulation or government oversight. As corporate profits balloon, executives receive massive pay raises and bonuses—while workers’ wages stagnate and prices go up. 

Tax time adds insult to injury. Oxfam reports that the richest 1% pay just over 23% in income tax while the average earner’s tax rate is more than 36%. 

Policy solutions

Extreme wealth inequality doesn’t just affect your wallet—it also concentrates political power. Two recent examples: In March, the federal government cancelled a proposed hike in the capital gains inclusion rate, and the budget scrapped a luxury tax on some yachts and jets.

While governments capitulate to the ultra-wealthy, social ills take hold. Hospitals, schools, and public services face cuts. Infrastructure ages. Media fold and frustration mounts. 

Experts are calling for a wealth tax. Oxfam estimates that the government could raise more than $120 billion over five years with a 1% tax on net worth over $10 million, 2% on net worth over $50 million, and 3% on net worth over $100 million. Canadians for Tax Fairness and B.C. Policy Options add that a 3% tax on billionaires would raise $5.8 billion in its first year. Further, they recommend an inheritance tax and capital gains tax reform. 

Canadian workers aren’t broke because they don’t work hard enough, and they’re not going to scrimp their way to financial stability. They’re stretched thin because decades of policy choices allowed wealth to concentrate at the top while wages stagnated, housing to become unaffordable, and public infrastructure to crumble.

The money to fix Canada’s problems exists, and a wealth tax would unlock it. So sit down, grab a cup of coffee—heck, treat yourself to a latte—and write your representative about progressive tax reform.

Read more about saving:

• How global conflict affects your finances in Canada
• Don’t inherit a crisis: How to manage a parent’s debt before they pass
• Tax season can bring some respite to parents with credits, deductions
• Financial paralysis and how to get moving again

About Keph Senett

Keph Senett writes about personal finance through a community-building lens. She seeks to make clear and actionable knowledge available to everyone.