If you are under 80, you probably haven’t made any arrangements for the long-term care needs you might face in your final years. As the chart shows, you should.
By 2031, Canada is projected to have almost double the number of seniors aged 85 and older that it had as recently as 2016. And the number continues to soar right up until 2051. It is a safe bet that governments at all levels will be unprepared for this population explosion, given that there are few votes to be garnered from acting 10 or more years before a crisis surfaces.
If anything, these numbers are understated, as they do not capture the full impact of the rapid population growth of recent years, the result of historically high rates of immigration since 2022.
Frederick Vettese is a former chief actuary of Morneau Shepell and the author of the PERC retirement calculator (perc-pro.ca)