The OECD’s Risks that Matter (RTM) Survey has offered data-driven insights into people’s risk perceptions and preferences for social protection since 2018. Today, Canadians are less worried than the OECD average about most social and economic risks, with one exception: access to good-quality healthcare.
As technology changes labour markets, respondents in Canada are more likely than the OECD average to believe that it will deliver both positive impacts and negative impacts (Figure 1). Concerns about negative impacts contribute to demands for social protection. As elsewhere, Canadians support investment in training and education, but compared to the OECD average, Canadians are more supportive of preferential hiring for domestic workers, more accessible and/or more generous public benefits and services, basic income, taxes on robots and/or technology, and migration of skilled and unskilled workers (Figure 2).
Longer life expectancy and declining fertility contribute to population ageing, with negative implications for economic growth and the financing of social protection. Canadian respondents are more concerned about population ageing than the OECD average. Reflecting this, Canadian respondents are more supportive of measures to increase labour supply, especially among women and underrepresented groups, increase technology use, encourage longer working lives and increase migration (Figure 3).
Population ageing and competing demands for resources are narrowing the fiscal space for social programmes. These changes are taking place against a backdrop of high levels of debt, a high-interest rate environment, and declining public willingness to pay for social protection. In Canada, willingness to pay 2% more for better social protection has declined since the pandemic for all policy areas except housing and public safety (Figure 4). Declines have been largest for pensions, long-term care and education.
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