More Canadians owe more money than ever before and use debt to survive, with millions of people having “no margin for error” if a financial crisis strikes, a new document suggests.
“Many Canadians are under financial strain … over half of Canadians (53%) report that they struggle to keep up with financial commitments,” the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) said in a recently released memo, which was first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter.
FCAC acquired the findings from Monthly Financial Well-being Monitor questionnaires that it had commissioned. That data showed household debt trends had worsened since the pandemic.
The survey found that one-quarter of Canadians said they “spend more than they earn,” 50 percent had used savings over the past year to cope with expenses, and 33 percent borrowed to cover regular expenses, according to the April 13 memo….