The housing market is a prime example of poor management and a huge driver of Canadians’ inability to get rewarded for their work, he said.

Yan said in Canada, social mobility is becoming stagnant due to these factors, and that’s making the country a less desirable place to live.

Many experts agree, saying Canada is in a full-on housing affordability crisis. A recent Rental Housing Index report found that 18 per cent of renters in Vancouver and Toronto are spending at least half their income on rent and utilities, while about 40 per cent are spending more than 30 per cent of their income on it.

Canada has now surpassed the U.S. with higher levels of household debt to GDP, with the figures dropping south of the border over the last decade. But as housing unaffordability continues its march in Canada, and as the country already has the worst household debt load in the G7, such debt levels are expected to continue to climb further and income inequality to further increase.