Nearly half of Canada’s billionaire families live in Ontario, report says

A recent report has shown that a majority of Canada’s billionaires are calling Ontario home. 

Canadians for Tax Fairness (C4TF) is a non-profit that monitors tax policies to keep track of Canada’s staggering economic inequality. 

As a result of their digging, they recently published a report titled Show me the money: A provincial overview of extreme wealth in Canada, revealing who at the top of the food chain is stockpiling cash, assets and property in each province. 

The methodology involved assessing the net worth (market value minus debts) for each family, excluding any ties to corporations or government agencies. 

When smashing the piggy banks of Canada’s ultra-wealthy, it was discovered that — as of now —there are roughly 86 billionaire families scattered across the country, with 38 of these moneyed dynasties based in Ontario. 

C4TF states that this correlation is not a surprise concerning the mechanics of geopolitics, as Ontario has both the highest GDP per capita and major seats of power in Toronto (provincial government) and Ottawa (the feds).

However, Ontario’s roommate situation between wealth and power doesn’t stop at the billionaire class, as it trickles down to millionaires as well. 

Based on the report’s findings, there are 3,380 families in Canada with $100 million in total wealth, of whom the greatest number (1,570) live in Ontario. 

Further investigation found a bleak statistic, as while Ontario has over a third of all national billionaires, and a majority of its millionaires, with a national average of 4.4 million people living below the poverty line, the province also takes home first prize in that respect, as it harbours 1.9 million people out of that total. 

Concerning the overall average when it comes to Ontario’s ‘haves’ when compared to its ‘have-nots,’ the wealthiest 0.01 per cent of families have an average wealth of $546 million in the province.

C4TF found that, based on data from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), the wealthiest 1 per cent of Canadian families controlled $3.7 trillion — nearly a quarter — of all wealth in Canada in 2023, an increase of $3 trillion in only two decades.