The Ticking Time Bomb: Demographic Changes in Canada

The Current Liberal  Plan for Health Care Reform


Tick, tick, tick, tick...

There is a time bomb waiting to go off in Canada, and no one is paying much attention to it.

According to a Statistics Canada report released today:
In 1981 - the ratio of working people to retirees: 6 to 1
Projections for 2031 - the ratio of working people to retirees: 3 to 1

Consider as well that according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information:
In 2008, the latest available year for data broken down by age group, provincial and territorial governments spent an average of $10,742 per Canadian age 65 and older, compared to $2,097 on those between age 1 and 64. Within the senior population, spending varies widely by age group, with health care expenditure on seniors age 80 and older, at an average of $18,160 per capita, more than three times higher than for seniors younger than age 70 ($5,828 per person on average).
Now, then.

Do the math.

Ignoring the weight of our debt on the backs of our next generations, the working Canadians of 2031 will be saddled with massively increasing health care costs.  The current Liberal mantra of "keep doing what we've been doing" just doesn't cut it.  For that matter, the current closet Liberal mantra of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta of "keep doing what we've been doing" doesn't cut it.

We need ideas and we need change.

Because the seconds are ticking away, and before long, the answers will no longer be able to be phased in over time - but will become drastic and, perhaps, draconian.

The time to look to address this problem is NOW.

And is, perhaps, just slightly more important than whether or not the military is the "Royal" military.