Good morning. A convergence of unaffordable housing, unaffordable food, fears over artificial intelligence, the climate, more frequent geopolitical shocks and historically high unemployment is making it tough to be young in Canada. The economic effects of leaving a growing crisis unaddressed are in focus today – plus, how Canada got a seat on a space mission for the ages.

Investing: The OSC is accusing accounting giant KPMG LLP of failing to properly audit private debt manager Bridging Finance, and now faces up to $40-million in fines.

Energy: The Middle East conflict and U.S. trade tensions have amplified the need for Canada to ramp up exports of liquefied natural gas to Asia, according to the chief executive officer of TC Energy Corp. Also yesterday, Suncor Energy Inc. said it is aiming to boost oil production by 100,000 barrels a day to nearly one million by 2028.

Trade: Three months out from the formal review date for the North American trade pact, Canada appears to be on the sidelines, as Mexico’s trade team has already started “technical discussions” with U.S. trade officials.

In the face of a U.S. trade war, an oil shock and mounting pressure on Canada’s economy and sovereignty, much of the focus has turned to major projects as a way to create jobs and keep the country competitive. The Trans Mountain expansion, for example – lifting pipeline revenues to roughly $3-billion a year – is often used to illustrate how large-scale infrastructure can unlock higher prices and revenues for Canadian resources.

That places one of the country’s most prominent growth investments in roughly the same range as the potential gains of improving youth employment. In a report commissioned by the King’s Trust Canada, Deloitte researchers identified roughly $4.3-billion a year in lost tax revenue and higher government support costs tied to weaker youth labour market outcomes, while estimating stronger youth employment could also raise Canada’s GDP by $18.5-billion by 2034.

The measure of success

If it wasn’t already clear, this is not exactly hard science. (I would die in less than an hour were I to wake up alone on a spaceship and had to work with an alien to save the galaxy. Hail Mary? I’d have already dropped the ball.) But given the recent findings of the World Happiness Report, which shows life satisfaction among Canadians aged under 30 ranks 71st globally – far below the country’s overall ranking at 25th – the debate over the future of Canada’s economy risks missing a massive problem owing to its relatively abstract nature.

Where a pipeline generates revenue through exports, improves market access for Canadian resources and narrows price discounts, the effects of a more engaged youth cohort aren‘t quite so visible or politically powerful. But the latest annual ranking of life satisfaction documents a sharp decline in young Canadians’ sense of control, security and future prospects, happiness reporter Erin Anderssen writes – perhaps no wonder as the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 tipped to a historically high 14.1 per cent in February.

Housing costs and a deterioration in living standards are among the most important drags on well-being for young people, according to continuing research by Haifang Huang, John Helliwell and Max Norton. Economic hardship – particularly as it relates to housing affordability – is a primary driver and accounts for roughly half of the decline.

“In Canada at least, the economic explanation is not a secondary factor but a primary one,” said Huang, a University of Alberta economics professor who analyzes happiness data.

Social-media use captured the lion’s share of global headlines upon the release of this year’s Happiness Report in March, but differences across English-speaking countries with similar exposure suggest it is not a sufficient explanation for the drop in youth life satisfaction in Canada and the U.S., said Helliwell, a professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia and founding editor of the World Happiness Report.

Building a youth movement

These issues are not new to economists, or to politicians. In the last federal election, leaders across party lines ran on measures to tackle affordability. Prime Minister Mark Carney won on a promise to protect Canada against an antagonistic White House and to advance what he has described as a “wartime effort” to improve affordability through his Build Canada Homes initiative.

Carney has also promised rapid reskilling programs, automatic job‑matching for EI claimants and targeted support for workers hit by tariffs. But his tenure has so far been defined by an industrial strategy aimed at remaking how Canada grows – among his central policy levers, faster approvals for major projects and a “Buy Canada” procurement strategy that would reduce reliance on the United States.

High tides lift all boats. But Canada’s young people are on a vessel in desperate need of marine-grade epoxy. The answer, to some countries facing similar challenges, has been to front-load a lens of equity and demography into all parts of governance.

New Zealand requires cabinet ministers to justify spending against well-being priorities such as mental health, housing and child poverty. Wales legally obliges public bodies to weigh the long‑term social and economic consequences of their decisions across policy areas. And since 2021, Canada’s federal government has used a Quality of Life Framework to track how choices made in one portfolio affect outcomes such as financial security, health and social connection across the whole of government.

But these measures aren’t pulled through a specific youth lens. And while they track outcomes across the population and feed into budget analysis, they don’t set targets or binding deadlines. It sounds a bit squishy, doesn’t it? Still, the framework is there. What’s missing, whatever the answer may be, is the wartime urgency needed to address an economic emergency that will otherwise compound in severity over the coming generations.

But before Canada can solve this particular crisis, Canada has to see it.