Unifor BIG Three autoworkers vote for strike mandate, mirrors U.S. counterpart

Ritika Dubey, The Canadian Press 

Aug 28, 2023

A strong strike mandate from the Canadian auto workers, adding to the simultaneous autoworkers' negotiations south of the border, is making for an exciting time for the automotive industry in North America, says Steven Tufts at York University. Supporters for Unifor, the national union representing auto workers, attend a rally within view of General Motors headquarters, background, in Windsor, Ont., Friday, Jan. 11, 2019. , THE CANADIAN PRESSAP-Carlos Osorio

Canadian and U.S. autoworkers are both negotiating with the Detroit Three carmakers simultaneously for the first time in 25 years, creating the potential for a co-ordinated strike against one of the major producers.

Workers at the Canadian arms of Ford, General Motors and Stellantis this past weekend voted between 98 per cent and 99 per cent in favour of allowing Unifor to call a strike if bargaining committees fail to secure the collective agreements.

York University associate professor Steven Tufts says the strong strike mandate signals that the workers may not be happy with the current offers and are willing to strike and make gains. 

"They do have a mandate that strong," he said of the union representing 18,000 autoworkers.

"(The workers) may push the employer a little bit harder, not only to expand the investments but also to secure wage gains that a lot of workers want now, especially in a period of high inflation and higher interest rates."

effort to improve pensions, increase wages, and secure good, union jobs in the EV future

Along with a wage boost and commitments for electric vehicle production, Unifor wants to improve workers' pensions. When automakers were on the brink of bankruptcy during the financial crisis of 2008-09, employees made significant pension concessions, including a shift toward defined contributions. Payne has said Unifor will be fighting to restore some of what was lost. 

Detroit Three workers' contracts, for Unifor in Canada and United Auto Workers south of the border, are set to expire days apart in September making it an interesting time for bargaining. 

Tuft said while Unifor and UAW are bargaining at the same time, both unions have separate goals for their workers.

He said the Canadian Auto Workers are looking to secure and expand investment, with a focus on the transition to electric vehicle-related production. 

"We've been focused in recent years on securing investment because the footprint in Canada was shrinking," he explained.  

He added that getting investments in electric vehicle manufacturing would secure jobs in Canada for years to come.

Daniel Ross, senior manager of automotive industry insights at Canadian Black Book, said the deal could be foundational for Canada's electric vehicle industry.

"(This) could make us a definitive new car production powerhouse for the next generation of vehicles," he said. "We need to have that foundation built down."

The U.S. auto counterparts are focused on securing higher cumulative wages, pushing for a 40 per cent hike, which Tuft says is an attempt to make up for the lost territory in wages over the years.

Members of the United Auto Workers union also handed down a strike mandate with 97 per cent of members in favour.

Tuft said the strong mandate for strikes on both sides of the border could possibly lead to a continental shutdown of the auto sector if Unifor and UAW go out days or weeks apart.

Unifor is expected to announce their target company after the Labour Day weekend. 

The union usually picks one automaker with which to concentrate bargaining. Whatever terms are agreed to with that target company general carry over to the other two.

Unifor will likely focus on Ford Motor Co. over General Motors or Stellantis as the lead automaker during this round of three-year contract talks, Unifor leader Lana Payne has said. Ford is most advanced and forthcoming on its electric vehicle transition plans and other negotiations, she said, but the union hasn't announced a final decision.

Tuft said if the unions on both sides pick the same auto company, despite having different priorities, they could have a greater affect bargaining.

A potential strike could add to the COVID-19-induced supply chain issues that the industry is still recovering from.

Ross said if the union and employers fail to come to agreeable terms, it would affect the production of new vehicles, further dampening the automotive industry. 

"As we know, the scenario is not perfect," he said. "This is just going to be an insult to injury."

 

Unifor targets Ford Motors as lead company in auto contract talks

Unifor has picked Ford Motor Co. as the lead company for negotiations with the Detroit Three automakers as it works to hammer out new contracts.

The bargaining with Ford will serve as a blueprint for workers at General Motors and Stellantis, the union's national president said Tuesday, as it focuses on securing electric vehicle production investments.

Lana Payne said she is encouraged by Ford's transparency with the union in key areas, but warned workers are prepared to strike if necessary.

"Ford Motor Company articulated to us its own vision and framework," she said during a press conference. 

"Although there are certain areas of disagreement, there were also areas of alignment and this is important."

Unifor members at Ford voted 98.9 per cent in favour of a strike if the bargaining committee fails to secure a new collective agreement.

Payne said the strike mandate puts the union in a good position.

"We're feeling strong, supported and ready to bargain," Payne said.

The union kicked off negotiations with the major auto companies earlier this month as the contract for 18,000 autoworkers at the Detroit Three is scheduled to expire on Sept. 18.

It will now pause its discussions with GM and Stellantis while it focuses on Ford.

"We will approach these talks with Ford to secure the best possible contract for our members. That is our goal," Payne told reporters and union leaders in Toronto. 

"The tentative settlement we present will be the one that our committee can stand behind, an agreement that our members can be proud of," she said. 

"And if that can't happen, then there will be no deal. And if anyone thinks that I'm bluffing right now, just follow what our union has been doing this past year, these past weeks."

Payne may have been alluding to ongoing action by Unifor members at 27 Toronto-area Metro grocery stores, who have been on strike since July 29. The union has said it wants a strong deal with Metro that it hopes to repeat in contracts with other grocers, a tactic borrowed from auto negotiations.

Steven Tufts, an associate professor at York University, said the strong strike mandate "turned up the heat in this round of bargaining."

Tufts said Unifor's choice to target Ford shows the strong push for more investments in the transition to electric vehicles. 

"If Unifor is serious about increasing the investment dollars, then what you're seeing is potential of some production shifting to Canada," he said.

Although, he said, the wage gains likely won't be as strong as what the U.S. auto union is pushing to get. 

In the U.S., members of the United Auto Workers are bargaining simultaneously for the first time in 25 years as their collective agreements expire days apart in September. The union south of the border voted in favour of a strike with 97 per cent mandate if the terms aren't met.

Tufts said the two unions could exert more pressure on the Detroit Three if they were to target the same company.

While UAW has not announced their pick, Tufts said they are likely to target Stellantis, which is more profitable than GM and Ford.

"If UAW targets Stellantis, they're going for huge wage gains," he said. The union in the U.S. is pushing for a cumulative wage increase of 40 per cent. 

"There was an opportunity, perhaps, to do some coordinated bargaining," he said. "That's not happening.

"The question then becomes, is it an opportunity lost?"

Payne said Unifor has maintained open communications with UAW but the priorities remain different.

"We are bargaining our own collective agreement here," she said. "We have our own strategy and we have our own members to deliver for and their expectations are high."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2023.

Metro says tentative deal reached with striking grocery workers in Toronto

The Canadian Press

Metro Inc. says it has reached a tentative agreement with Unifor covering striking workers at 27 Metro grocery stores across the Greater Toronto Area.

Details of the tentative deal were not immediately available.

In a statement Wednesday, Metro called the agreement fair and equitable, adding that the deal was unanimously recommended by the union's bargaining committee and will put an end to the labour dispute if ratified.

The company said the agreement will be submitted to the employees for a ratification vote, which is expected to take place shortly. 

"This tentative agreement acknowledges the economic struggle that many of our members face,” Gord Currie, Unifor Local 414 president, said in a statement.

“I am very proud of these members and their determination.”

The employees went on strike on July 29 after rejecting an earlier tentative agreement that the union described as their best in decades. 

During the weeks-long dispute, Metro workers began secondary picket lines at two distribution centres, preventing stores from receiving fresh products, a move for which the grocer was granted a temporary injunction. 

Metro and Unifor went back to the bargaining table on Tuesday, a month after the strike began and the same day the injunction was granted. 

Since their last contract, the workers have endured a global pandemic, skyrocketing inflation and rising interest rates.

The Metro employees have been asking for higher wages as well as better working conditions and more full-time jobs. Some workers have said they struggle to afford groceries at their own stores.

The union had said workers want a bigger share of Metro’s profits, which have risen in the past couple of years, with some workers saying they want their pandemic "hero pay" — an extra $2 an hour — reinstated.

A recent study from the Competition Bureau found that the country’s three largest grocers, Metro included, collectively reported more than $100 billion in sales and $3.6 billion in profits last year.

This round of bargaining was the first for Unifor in a two-year stretch of negotiations for more than a dozen collective agreements with the major grocers. The union has said it hopes the Metro deal will help set a precedent for those upcoming talks.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 30, 2023

UNIFOR Pres Lana Payne: 'New order' in labour market gives workers an edge

Daniel Johnson , BNN Bloomberg

As Unifor makes headlines over negotiations with automakers and grocer Metro Inc., the president of Canada’s largest private sector union says the country’s workers have a window opportunity to seek better working conditions. 

A tentative deal between Metro and Unifor suggested a possible breakthrough Wednesday in the month-long strike by employees in the Greater Toronto Area. A day earlier, Unifor said it selected Ford to serve as the lead company in negotiations with the Detroit Three automakers, which also include General Motors and Stellantis. 

Lana Payne, Unifor’s national president, said in a Tuesday interview with BNN Bloomberg that there is always a sense of urgency in labour relations – but Canada’s current demographic structure gives workers extra leverage.

“If you look at our demographics, we are going to have a tighter labour market for a long period of time,” Payne said.

“There is a new order to these things right now and corporations in Canada need to make sure that they are paying workers well and have good quality jobs in order to attract and keep people.”

AUTOMAKER TALKS

Payne said the union has four key priorities in its contract talks with Ford – which will serve as a blueprint for negotiations with the other two big auto companies.

Those priorities include pension improvements, wages, implications of the electric vehicle (EV) transition and attracting more investment into Canada’s automotive industry. 

“Our members have not seen a pension improvement since 2007, just prior to the great financial crisis of 2008 to 2009, so we have some ground to make up there,” she said. 

“Wages (are) critically important, as they are at every bargaining table right now, given the state of the cost of living. But also (there is) this whole issue of what happens in the (EV) transition.” 

Payne said that the union made “good progress” in negotiations with Ford last week and has made “some progress” with other automakers. She said Ford has been transparent with Unifor about its plans for Canada and its timeline for its EV transition. 

“This was a very good foundation for us to work from,” Payne said. 

On the transition to EVs now playing out in the automotive industry, she said the union has been informing automakers that “this transition does not work without our members.” 

“There's billions and billions of dollars riding on this transition,” she said. “Our members are geared up to be able to make it successful.”

GROCERY WORKERS

Metro said it had reached a tentative agreement with Unifor on Wednesday. While workers still need to ratify the deal, the development could mark the end of a strike across 27 Metro grocery stores in the Greater Toronto Area that began in late July.

Workers had also started picket lines at Metro distribution centres to prevent stores from receiving deliveries – a move that saw Metro receive a temporary injunction on Tuesday before the two sides returned to the bargaining table. 

While details of the deal weren’t immediately available, Unifor Local 414 president Gord Currie said the tentative agreement “acknowledges the economic struggle that many of our members face.”

Striking Metro workers told the Canadian Press earlier in the labour action that they could not afford to buy food from the grocery stores where they worked.

Before Wednesday’s developments, Payne argued that grocery companies have posted good profits and their CEOs are highly paid, so the grocery chains’ workers should be paid enough to get by, too.

“For grocery store companies, they've been doing very well through the pandemic, and post-pandemic, their profits have increased every quarter,” she said. 

“They have plans, they have money and what we're saying is, we have members who also have needs. They have to live in this very expensive city.” 

With files from the Canadian Press. 

 

Black Montreal family removed from Air Canada flight alleges racial profiling

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press

Keith Wright, second left, is flanked by his daughters Kelsey Smith-Wright, left, and Jodi Smith-Wright, and CRARR executive director Fo Niemi, right, at a press conference in Montreal, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023. The family has filed a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission for racial profiling against Air Canada after the airline forced nine members of their family off a flight to Orlando on July 28, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi)

A Black Montreal family alleges they were victims of racial profiling by Air Canada when they were removed from a Florida-bound flight last month after raising concerns their bags hadn't been loaded on the plane.

Members of the Wright family called for accountability on Tuesday as they told a news conference their version of how things unfolded on July 28 at Montréal-Trudeau International Airport.

Keith Wright said his daughter raised concerns to a flight attendant that the family's bags were still visible on the rain-soaked tarmac. The 7:30 p.m. flight had been delayed due to inclement weather, and the pilot had announced that some luggage would be left behind because the plane was over its weight limit.

After the Wright family spoke out, the plane returned to the gate and staff said they would find a remedy.

Wright, 55, said a white passenger who had complained about the delay and demanded to leave was asked to disembark with his young son. But to Wright's surprise, he and his daughter were also asked to leave the plane and were allegedly not told why. 

His daughter, Jodi Smith-Wright, 31, insisted that neither she nor her father raised their voices, swore or were otherwise impolite.

"I couldn't believe that asking a question could lead to what happened to us and I do believe it was (racial profiling) because there were other people that were definitely concerned about their things when they overheard my complaint and nobody else was asked to get off the plane," she said.

Her father said being escorted from the rear of the craft created a deep embarrassment. "Completely, deeply hurt as a human being that this was happening to me."

Seven other members of the family — ranging in age from five to 60 — were also removed from the flight. Wright said another Black family was also asked to leave the plane but was finally allowed to stay when they said they weren't travelling with the Wrights.

Wright said that after his family left the plane they were met by six officers, including Canada Border Services Agency agents and Montreal police.

"I couldn't believe what was happening here just for asking for the service that Air Canada says they provide," Wright said.

The family had to scramble to find an alternate flight for nine people after an Air Canada official said they would be banned from flying with the carrier for 24 hours. They ended up with a sleepless night driving three personal vehicles to Syracuse, N.Y., to catch a last-minute morning flight, almost missing their cruise, which itself cost nearly $12,000. 

"By the grace of God, we were able to make the cruise with 20 minutes to spare," Wright said.

Before getting on a return Air Canada flight after the cruise, he said he had to speak with an airline agent. "They were asking me if I was going be quiet, and I had to tell the person, 'Yes, I'm going to be in compliance,' like if I had committed some sort of major crime," Wright said.

The family said Tuesday it intends to file racial profiling complaints with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, assisted by the Montreal-based Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations.

In an emailed statement, Air Canada confirmed that a group of passengers were deplaned following "an incident on board the aircraft."

Christophe Hennebelle, vice-president for corporate communications, said the airline would not discuss what led to the decision, adding that the carrier deals with customers directly.

"However, these actions were taken only for the safety and well-being of our other customers and crew," Hennebelle wrote. "Should a complaint on this matter be filed with the competent authorities, we will take the opportunity at that time to explain our decision."

Fo Niemi, executive director of CRAAR, said each family member could seek up to $10,000 and that the commission's investigation will shed light on the alleged safety concern.

"We hope that this incident will compel not only Air Canada, but the airline industry, to come up with clear policy against racial profiling in commercial air travel," Niemi said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2023.

Non-permanent residents in Canada undercounted by one million: CIBC

The Canadian Press

A new CIBC Capital Markets report says the official number of non-permanent residents in Canada often cited by policymakers could be vastly underestimated.

The report says the actual number could be off by one million, meaning any policies around housing or those aimed at capping the number of non-permanent residents might be more urgent than previously thought.

Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at CIBC, says the significant gap is in part because the federal government does not have a system to track people with expired visas who continue to stay in the country.

While forecasting is difficult, population estimates are crucial because cities and provinces use them to inform their budgets and plan future housing and infrastructure projects. 

Canada's population hit a milestone of 40 million earlier this year. 

With the underestimation of non-permanent residents, the report says from a housing perspective, it's the equivalent of more than two years of building capacity. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 30, 2023.

These cars are stolen so often that insurance premiums are climbing

Ben Cousins, BNN Bloomberg

With vehicle thefts on the rise in Canada, owners of the most frequently stolen car models are seeing their insurance premiums go up as well.

Équité Association’s latest Vehicle Theft Trend Report listed the Honda CR-V, the Lexus RX Series and the Ford F-150 as the most stolen vehicles in Canada.

Those three vehicles are stolen so often that RATESDOTCA’s auto insurance quoter shows their insurance premiums have climbed. 

For example, a 35-year-old male CR-V driver in Toronto would have seen the comprehensive portion of his insurance climb by 26 per cent in the last year, according to a recent report from RATESDOTCA. In some cases, the surcharge could be as much as $500. 

The report found that thieves stole 4,117 CR-Vs in the last year. 

Équité Association’s report found Ontario and Quebec saw a nearly 50-per-cent climb in vehicle thefts year-over-year, while Atlantic Canada saw a 34.5-per-cent climb and Alberta saw an 18.3-per-cent rise. 

The association estimates insurers lost more than $1 billion to stolen vehicles in 2022, marking the first year in which losses eclipsed $1 billion. 

“There is no doubt that vehicle theft has reached a national crisis in this country,” Terri O’Brien, president and CEO of Équité Association wrote in a news release in June. 

“These crimes hurt our communities, and puts Canada in the spotlight internationally as a source country for illegal trade.”

RATESDOTCA said those looking to avoid the surcharge can install an anti-theft device, such as a steering wheel lock, which will often eliminate the charge after providing the insurer with proof of purchase. Alternatively, switching insurers can sometimes help as well, as the list of at-risk vehicles can fluctuate.  

“The list of commonly stolen vehicles may vary slightly from insurer to insurer, so if your vehicle is on one insurer’s list, it might not be on another, and you could potentially save money by changing providers,” Daniel Ivans, a RATESDOTCA expert and licensed insurance broker, said in the news release.

“It's always a good idea to check in with a broker to see what options they have available.” 

Ongoing cost-of-living crisis should trigger

another housing benefit payment: NDP's 

Singh

Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press  

The federal government needs to issue another $500 benefit payment for low-income families struggling to keep a roof over their heads, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Thursday.

Singh was in Sooke, B.C. on a cross-country summer tour where the national housing crisis and ongoing anxiety about the cost of living is taking centre stage. 

In an interview, he said the federal Liberals have done an "abysmal" job dealing with the housing crisis and he intends to make the upcoming fall sitting of Parliament all about getting more housing built.

"They're a failure," he said bluntly of the Liberals.

He said the NDP have a long list of policies they want the government to implement, but chief among them is a second top-up to the Canada Housing Benefit targeting low-income Canadians who spend more than a third of their income on rent. 

The first $500 top-up, which was announced in September 2022 alongside a temporary boost to the GST rebate, was rolled out just before Christmas. It cost the government $475 million.

The one-time housing benefit payment was among the items in the supply-and-confidence agreement reached between the Liberals and NDP in March 2022. The agreement lists policy items the two will collaborate on in exchange for the NDP supporting the Liberals on key votes to prevent the minority government from being defeated.

The agreement says the government should consider a second round of the housing benefit payment if cost-of-living issues continue. 

When asked if he thinks that applies now, Singh said: "Yes, absolutely."

He said he also wants more co-operation between Ottawa, provinces and post-secondary schools to build student housing, as well as a fund to buy-up affordable homes that are at risk of being sold to developers and builders who won't keep them affordable.

Singh said the "housing acquisition fund" would "prevent us from losing the affordable homes that we do have."

"That would prevent a building being bought up by a developer and then the tenants being renovicted," he said. 

"Instead, that building that does have affordable rent could then be kept in the hands of the community with this fund, and that would allow for a community group, a not-for-profit or even the residents to turn it into a co-operative."

The Liberals have said housing is their chief priority right now, as millions of Canadians face rising rents and increased mortgage costs on top of a housing market that has seen house prices soar in the last few years. 

A recent cabinet retreat in Charlottetown was heavily focused on the issue, but the government did not announce any new policies there. 

Many housing experts and economists say the main problem is a basic lack of housing supply. There are not enough houses in almost any category to keep up with demand. 

Singh said he recently spoke to a family in Alberta with two good-paying jobs who were going to lose their home because they could not afford the rising rent. 

He said for the Liberals to leave their cabinet retreat without any solutions on the table is not acceptable.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 31, 2023.

Canada likely sitting on the largest housing bubble of all time: Strategist

Iva Poshnjari, BNN Bloomberg

The Canadian housing market is at high risk of unravelling, according to one expert. 
 
The level of debt that Canadians have taken on in comparison to their incomes has put many in a precarious position should mortgage rates continue to rise — which is likely, Phillip Colmar, partner at Global Strategist at MRB Partners, told BNN Bloomberg in an interview on Tuesday. 
 
“Canada is probably sitting on the largest housing bubble of all time,” he warned. 
 
Colmar argued that the inflated home prices in Canada are a result of two decades' worth of easy money supplied by the Bank of Canada’s monetary policy for numerous reasons. At the present moment, he sees risk in mortgage rates climbing as Canadian bond yields are dragged up, particularly at a time when debt-to-income ratios are sky high. 
 
“The worst part for a housing bubble is when you have [a] credit bubble underneath it,” Colmar warned. 
 
“The amount of Canadian leverage into the system versus incomes is pretty astronomical — and we’ve seen debt servicing going up dramatically.”
 
While the Canadian banks are doing their part to stop the housing market from toppling over, Colmar said he believes it inevitably will. 
 
“There is definitely a risk here that if mortgage rates go higher or unemployment were to rise or we hit the next recession, then this thing does end up in a deleveraging cycle,” he said. 

Decades of policy failures spurred

Canada's housing crisis: Former deputy

PM

Daniel Johnson , BNN Bloomberg

Canada’s housing crunch is the result of decades of poor policy stemming from the federal government leaving the issue to the provinces in the 1980s, according to one former deputy prime minister.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg that when Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) was involved in building housing, there was a significant amount of national investment in housing as well as housing policy and strategy.

“The decision that was made back in 1987 to get out of housing at the federal level has resulted in 30 years of underbuilt housing, and also 30 years of not really analyzing good public policy on housing,” Copps said. “I think that's a big issue.”

POLICY SHIFTS

According to Copps, who served as a Liberal deputy prime minister in the 1990s, housing policy in the 1970s saw the national government more directly involved in building housing, including the development of seniors and Indigenous housing.

This changed in the 1980s when provincial governments took over housing policy, Copps said.

While some provincial governments, like Quebec, decided to allocate funding to social housing, Copps said many others have not. 

“When the provincial governments took over the money (intended for housing), a lot of them didn't actually spend it on housing,” she said.

From that period on, she said the federal government was not involved in housing until 2017 when the Liberal government led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decided to “insert itself back into the housing game.” Copps said this move marked the beginning of a collaboration that will take time to address the issues of shortage and affordability currently plaguing Canadian cities.

“Now five years later, we're looking at a problem that has been percolating since we signed off on housing back in 1987,” Copps said.

“Sometimes a national government needs to be at the table to fix problems and leaving it up to 10 provinces and three territories is not always the right way to go.”

ENCOURAGING MIGRATION

In addition to building homes to increase supply, Copps said the federal housing strategy should also entail ways to incentivize migration out of Canada’s most densely populated areas.

“The other thing we need to look at is what the housing prices are in rural and remote communities versus urban areas and how we can encourage people to move around. We learned during the pandemic that everybody doesn't have to live in downtown Toronto,” she said.

“There's lots of opportunities to make people think about migrating elsewhere and getting maybe extra points for a registered homeownership investment plan. These things should be built into the thinking and to have that you really need to have a national government that is not just looking at building housing.” 

Millennials’ debt has 'ballooned': RBC economist

Ben Cousins, BNN Bloomberg

A new report suggests older millennials have seen their liabilities balloon to record levels, which risks bringing spending to a halt.

The report from the Royal Bank of Canada, released last week, found older millennials faced a debt-to-disposable income ratio of 250 per cent in 2019, a rise of 100 percentage points from 1999, despite a decline in their homeownership rate.

“It’s always the case that the youngest generation is the most indebted, but now those levels have absolutely ballooned and going into a situation where we’ve seen interest rates rise so drastically,” Carrie Freestone, an economist with RBC and author of the report, told BNN Bloomberg in a television interview Wednesday.

MORTGAGE RENEWALS LOOMING

The future doesn’t look all that bright either, as people with mortgages up for renewal could face a 25-per-cent climb in monthly payments due to the rise in interest rates. Meanwhile, average hourly incomes have only risen 12 per cent since the pandemic, the report said.

On the opposite end, baby boomers are less likely to feel the pinch from mortgage rates, as many have already paid off their homes. RBC found just 14 per cent of boomer households still have mortgage debt and that debt is significantly less than what the millennials face.

ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS

The debt millennials face can also hurt the economy, especially in the event of job losses, Freestone adds, as they are the generation that spends the most money.

“If you think about the generation that’s spending the greatest share of their take-home pay on discretionary goods and services, it is those middle-aged cohorts in their 30s and 40s,” she said.

“They spend much more than baby boomers who are maybe retired in their 60s. So if this is a group that’s facing higher interest costs, this is a group we could expect to see their consumption levels decline.”