One in three Canadians say they won't recover from financial crisis

The financial impact of the lockdown measures due to the pandemic has hit Canadians especially hard, with almost one in three saying they don't think they will ever be able to recover from the crisis.

In a recent survey, entitled Coping with COVID’s Financial Impact, 30 percent of all Canadians surveyed believe that financial recovery from the crisis will be impossible, and 42 percent of them believe that they are not financially equipped to handle a second lockdown.

According to FP Canada, on whose behalf the survey was conducted, more than a third of Canadians have had to take unusual, incidental measures to cope with the financial damage done by the events of 2020, including using personal savings, taking out new loans, or relying on revolving credit.

Tina Tehranchian, a certified financial planner in Toronto, said, "It is alarming to see the significant pain COVID-19 has inflicted on the finances of Canadians. It's also clear that many people are not prepared to endure this continued crisis. While younger Canadians are experiencing an outsized financial impact from the pandemic, it appears that the sandwich generation may be in the worst position."

The "sandwich generation" referred to by Tehranchian is a group of people currently in their 40s and 50s, who make up 36 percent of the people responding to the above-referenced survey. Many of them are currently raising children while caring for their aging parents at the same time. The pandemic and the resulting measures implemented by authorities have hit them especially hard because they tend to have many financial obligations and responsibilities.

Further concerns exist about the retail sector, as the nation approaches a holiday season with many of those who spend the most money on gifts unprepared to take on any more financial burdens this year.

Leger conducted an online survey on behalf of FP Canada of 1,538 Canadians between Sept. 18 to 20, 2020. A probability sample of the same size would yield a margin of error of +/-2.5 percent, 19 times out of 20.