Create Wealth Funds for Canadian Kids

At birth, every child should get $10,000 in a government-managed investment account. Their prospects and the country's—will soar.

- By Joe Canavan

THROUGHOUT MY THREE-DECADE CAREER, my north star has been creating wealth for Canadian families.

One example of this is the children's investing program I built in the '90s, when I was president of the asset-management startup GT Global Canada. I often thought about grandparents who gifted shares in Disney, Apple and McDonald's and the disappointed expressions they'd get from their grandkids, who were expecting Air Jordans or the newest Barbie for their birthdays. I wanted to make investing fun for those kids, so for the under-10 set, GT rolled out gift boxes that contained a frameable stock certificate, a stuffed toy and a storybook starring Henry the Hedgehog, who discussed money with his animal friends. For tweens and teens, there was an Archie-style comic book. The program became a big success, selling thousands and thousands of boxes. I knew the way to strengthen a nation was to raise financially confident and savvy adults. To do that, you have to start young.

Even if Canadian kids reach adulthood knowing how to create an investment portfolio, manage the risks of credit cards and “pay themselves first,” as the Wealthy Barber says, it can be harder to build wealth than it used to be. About half of the country’s undergraduate students leave school with student-loan debt—close to $30,000 on average. (In terms of consumer debt, millennials now hold the highest share of any generation.) Over the past two decades, home prices have risen by 375 per cent, while incomes have grown only 93 per cent. And in a recent Statistics Canada study, nearly 40 per cent of adults aged 20 to 29 said they doubt they'll be able to afford to have kids within three years, let alone a house to raise them in.