These Canadian provinces are home to the most billionaire families
As income inequality continues to rise in Canada, a new report reveals which provinces are home to the most billionaire families.
Non-profit, non-partisan organization Canadians for Tax Fairness (C4TF) released a report on Monday analyzing wealth concentration at the provincial level in Canada.
The report notes that people are recognizing the link between extreme wealth and extreme power, with calls to tax the rich coming from around the world, including in Canada.
“The concentration of wealth in a few hands is a direct corollary of the affordability crisis facing so many Canadians — the more wealth hoarded by a few, the less wealth is available for the rest of us as a form of financial security, a retirement nest egg, or to help pay for a down payment in the ever-less-affordable housing market,” argues the report.
It adds that an extreme concentration of wealth comes with immense political power because it comes with control over jobs and investment, and greater influence on politicians and policy.
The organization suggests that Canada lacks “even the simplest accounting of how extreme wealth inequality is across Canada.” It points to official data from Statistics Canada only showing the evolution of wealth to the 10th percentile, which it says is “obscuring the extreme wealth held by the ultra-wealthy.”
Using data from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), the C4TF showed recently that the wealthiest one per cent of Canadian families controlled $3.7 trillion or nearly a quarter of all the wealth in Canada in 2023. The organization builds on that, extending its research to find which provinces have the most billionaire families.
“Overall, we find that wealth concentration is high across Canada but has distinct characteristics in different regions,” reads the report.
It measured the wealth of the richest families in Canada via how much land and residential buildings they own, but also by how much equity, investment fund shares, life insurance, pensions, cash, and deposits they have. The report sourced this information from the Survey of Financial Security (SFS) Public Use Microdata Files and Forbes billionaire lists.
According to the report, Ontario has the most billionaire, centi-millionaire (>$100 million) and deca-millionaire (>$10 million) families. It estimates that 38 billionaire families (44 per cent of Canada’s wealthiest families) reside in Ontario.
C4TF
C4TF does note that these figures are impacted by the fact that Ontario is the most populous and wealthiest region.
Québec comes in second with an estimated 27 billionaire families, 590 centi-millionaire families, and 19,940 deca-millionaire families. British Columbia rounds out the top three, being home to nine billionaire families, 550 centi-millionaire families, and 18,710 deca-millionaire families.
When it comes to how wealthy these families are within each region, the report finds that Ontario still comes out on top, with the wealthiest 0.01 per cent of families holding an average of $546 million in wealth. B.C. comes in second with its wealthiest families holding an average net worth of $501 million, followed by QuĂ©bec’s top 0.01 per cent at $408 million and Alberta’s at $393 million.
C4TF
“Wealth concentration is a problem all across Canada. It is not confined to one province or region. In fact, the wealth of the ultra-wealthy is spread across Canada and even beyond,” argues the report. “This fact is often weaponized by the wealthy in order to argue that we can’t do anything about extreme wealth.”
C4TF says there are solutions for this, including provincial wealth tax options, which other countries like Switzerland and Spain have implemented.
To learn more, check out the organization’s full report.