Wealth inequality in Canada

Economic inequality has reached crisis levels in Canada. In 2025, income inequality was at a record high, while wealth inequality is growing, following larger global trends.

The richest one percent in Canada hold nearly $1.25 trillion in wealth — almost as much as the bottom 80 percent combined, and 210 times more wealth on average than the bottom 50 percent. To be a part of the one percent today requires an income or wealth assets of at least $7 million. In contrast, the bottom 40 percent collectively hold just over three percent of total wealth in Canada, each with an average net-worth of just under $87,000.

This isn't just a wealth gap but a wide, deep and growing wealth chasm.

Here's just a snapshot of what it looks like. In 2024, more than 25 percent of Canadians were living in food-insecure households and it is estimated that up to 300,000 were experiencing homelessness. Every month in Canada, foodbanks are recording more than two million visits, an increase of almost 100 percent nationwide since 2019. The number of Canadians living in poverty has been rising since 2020. Today child poverty is at a record high with nearly 1.4 million children now living in poverty.

At the other end, Canada's rich just keep getting richer. The richest 40 billionaires in Canada are holding more than $547 billion in wealth and were able to grow their wealth by nearly $95 billion, or 20 percent, compared to the year previous. Canada isn't just growing the wealth of our billionaires, it's creating new ones too — in 2025, Canada minted 12 new billionaires.

The impact of wealth inequality

Skyrocketing wealth for a few is giving them more control over politics and the economy, while ordinary people are pushed further into precarity. When power and wealth concentrates at the top it shapes government decisions, people have fewer chances to be heard, and democracy weakens. Let's take a closer look at how extreme wealth accumulation affects us all.

Limited competition:

Is it any surprise that in Canada so many of our billionaires' own businesses in the least competitive sectors, and that prices just keep going up? Take for example telecom dominated by "The Big Three" — Rogers, TELUS, and Bell — who charge Canadians some of the highest cellphone rates in the world. Rogers is controlled by the billionaire Rogers family while the billionaire Thomson family owns a minority stake in Bell. The grocery sector too — 80 percent of sales are controlled by "The Big Five" — Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro, Walmart, and Costco. In 2022, Loblaw, Sobeys, and Metro alone reported $3.6B in profits, and two of those three grocers are owned by billionaire families — the Weston and the Sobeys families.

Destabilizing democracy:

Inequality is deepening across the world. At the same time, rights are being rolled back. That these are happening at the same time is not a coincidence — there is a clear link between rising inequality and the erosion of democracy. For example, inequality contributes to polarization and to public perceptions of unfairness. In 2024, a survey of over 2,300 millionaire respondents from G20 countries found that over half think that extreme wealth is a threat to democracy.

The unequal impacts of inequality:

The impacts of inequality are not equal across society — when rights are eroded, when the cost-of-living rises, and when power is not shared, it's the most vulnerable who are impacted most. Women living in poverty, racialized communities, and disabled people face even more severe impacts of inequality. For example, women and racialized people dominate in the lowest paid and most poorly protected jobs. Globally, the labour income share of men is 2.4 times greater than that of women. In Canada, women's labour income is 77 percent that of men.

What should Canada do?

Reducing inequality in Canada doesn't require new ideas, but a political will to act. This includes putting in place a wealth tax, curbing the use of offshore tax havens, and supporting the establishment of the International Panel on inequality.

Establish a wealth tax to redistribute wealth and power:

The ultra-rich in Canada are not paying their fair share of taxes. To slow rising inequality, Canada should establish a progressive wealth tax that applies to those with a net worth of $10 million and above. This has the potential to raise an additional $121 billion in tax revenues over the next five years that could be used to redistribute wealth to support the most vulnerable and fund essential services to build a thriving economy like child care, health care and affordable housing.

Curb the use of offshore tax havens:

Large corporations and wealthy Canadians hold at least $682 billion of their savings outside of Canada. Canadian investments in Bermuda alone grew by $120 billion between 2011 and 2023, even though there is often no real business reason to move money there. By overlooking tax haven abuse, Canada is leaving approximately $15 billion annually in potential revenue on the table.

Supporting the establishment of the International Panel on Inequality:

One of the world's foremost experts on inequality, Joseph Stiglitz, led a report to the G20 that was presented at the most recent meetings in South Africa. The priority recommendation from the report is the formation of a new body, an International Panel on Inequality (IPI). The IPI would bring together the best evidence to clearly show how inequality is harming people, democracies and economies, and what governments can do about it.