Finance Committee on April 13th, 2026

[Jennifer Withington]

Okay.

Mr. Hoffarth will respond to your question.

[Matthew Hoffarth, Assistant Director, National Economic Accounts Division, Statistics Canada]

If we're talking about the net worth of households—all of their assets—that is what we alluded to. Households have five times as many nonfinancial and financial assets as they have debt. The net worth is over $18 trillion for households. It's not evenly distributed. As for financial assets, more than two-thirds are held by the top wealth quintile.

I want to note that in the OECD, Canada is one of the countries that ranks at the top of the list for net worth to disposable income, even though we're ranking highest for the debt to disposable income.

[Carlos Leitão, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

That's correct. One issue that sometimes gets lost in translation is that when one talks about debt, one should also compare debt with assets.

One of the big problems is the distributional component. Usually, the people who have a lot of debt may not necessarily have that many assets. Would you say the segments most at risk are households with relatively large levels of non-mortgage debt?

If you have a mortgage, of course, you have an asset—you have a house—and your net position may well be quite advantageous. Folks who don't have that many assets and who have reasonably elevated levels of consumer debt are, by definition, the most vulnerable. Perhaps it should be to those people that we policy-makers pay more attention.

[Jennifer Withington]

There is a preponderance of non-mortgage debt in the lowest-income quintiles. With the wealth we were referring to, the wealthiest quintile has approximately 68% of the financial assets and 65% of the net worth, so I would concur with your statement.

[Carlos Leitão, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Thank you.

I would now like to come back to the representatives from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada.

A concern that was frequently raised in 2024 and even in 2025 was the widespread fear of a kind of economic apocalypse caused by mortgage debt. Several commentators alluded to this scenario. Consumers had to refinance the mortgages they took out in 2020 and 2021, often at interest rates of 1.5%, for example. It was said that if they had to renew their mortgages at 4%, 5%, or 6%, it would trigger major financial stress.

But that's not what happened, and we didn't see that. Do you have a theory as to why we didn't really experience such an apocalypse?

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

I'm going to pass the word to Frank, but one thing an agency like ours does is look at trends. That's what our research is for. We look at trends, so we do actually look at the way in which mortgage renewals are going to—

[The Vice-Chair (Jasraj Hallan), Conservative, Jasraj Singh Hallan]

Thank you, Ms. Benzvy Miller. That's the time for this round.

[Carlos Leitão, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

We'll come back.

[The Vice-Chair (Jasraj Hallan), Conservative, Jasraj Singh Hallan]

We can definitely come back.

Next, we have Mr. Garon for six minutes.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's nice to see you in this role.

Greeting to my colleagues.

Ms. Lang, I would like to follow up a bit on what Mr. Leitão said.

We know that the number of bankruptcies, particularly personal bankruptcies, rose sharply during the 2009 recession. You said that the figures are not as alarming as they were back then. However, in a sense, we need to pay attention to this. You mentioned that some households are vulnerable. We are not currently at historic levels of personal bankruptcy, but we must ask ourselves what percentage of Canadian households are so vulnerable due to their debt. If we were to face a recession in the coming months or years, if a more difficult economic scenario were to arise—perhaps not as bad as in 2009—we hope that doesn't happen—these people could slide into bankruptcy.

How do we calculate the level of vulnerability of households to a potentially more difficult economic situation? Do you think this level of vulnerability has increased in recent years?

[Elisabeth Lang]

I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm the best person to answer that question, given my role and responsibilities as the superintendent of bankruptcy. If we don't have the information, it's not in our records.

Does that make sense?

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Yes and no.

I don't know if another witness would like to answer this question: If the economic situation worsens, do we know whether households today are vulnerable to a rise in insolvency rates? Perhaps the people at Statistics Canada are better equipped to answer that for us.

[Jennifer Withington]

Yes, we can answer your question.

One indication is the debt-to-income ratio. Since the pandemic and the first quarter of 2023, the debt-to-income ratio has declined significantly. Credit market debt has increased 4.3%, while household disposable income has jumped 8.5%.

It rose slightly in the last quarter.

I will let Mr. Hoffarth continue.

[Matthew Hoffarth]

I can add a clarification.

In our distributional accounts, we can see that the households in the lowest income quintile have a level of debt that is four times the level of income. We also see in that same product, which links income to consumption to savings to debt, that in the lowest-income quintile, their transportation costs, shelter costs and food costs, in some cases, exceed their overall amount of disposable income.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Would it be households in the bottom quintile who would be most vulnerable to a rise in fuel prices, for example, in a crisis like the one we are currently experiencing in the Strait of Hormuz?

[Jennifer Withington]

Definitely.

The LFS from October showed that 27.7% of Canadians were finding it difficult to make ends meet, to give you a bit of a benchmark.

There is no doubt that if gas prices rise, it will affect households in the lowest quintile.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Some parties are proposing, for example, to eliminate the excise tax on gasoline for all consumers. What you're telling us, in a sense, is that there really is a segment of the population that is more vulnerable and that a more targeted measure might be needed. I know it's not within your mandate to address that.

Commissioner Miller, your mission is to develop the National Strategy for Financial Literacy. I would like to know if we are doing well in terms of financial literacy in Quebec and Canada. How do we compare to other countries? What progress do we need to make? Are we starting from a very low baseline?

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

Before turning the floor over to Ms. Bombardier, I'd like to mention that I was at an international event recently. The people on the podium were asked the same question: Who was the best? The answer was as follows:

“Speak to Canada. They're the gold standard.”

From our international comparators, we do very well. In terms of financial—

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Are we good at measuring financial literacy, or do Canadians and Quebeckers have better financial literacy than people in comparable developed economies?

[Manon Bombardier]

Thank you for your question.

We have a fairly good score. Our financial literacy score is among the highest internationally, but that doesn't mean our work is done. We must continue our efforts. Financial literacy is currently being reviewed to see what works and what doesn't. We've committed, along with our partners, to exploring what we can do to improve the situation and enhance the financial well-being of Canadians.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

I'll keep this very brief, since we only have 15 seconds left.

Are you concerned about financial misinformation on social media? Do you think that what's circulating on TikTok, among influencers and so on, is undermining your work?

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

Yes, that's something we are concerned about.

[The Vice-Chair (Jasraj Hallan), Conservative, Jasraj Singh Hallan]

Please give a very short answer.

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

Everyone in the ecosystem is concerned about this situation.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Thank you.