POPULATION AGING AND THE MAINTENANCE OF SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS

The baby boom generation is now well into middle age, and over the nex t few decades will reach old age. As the boom generation grows old the costs of maintaining existing social support systems will rise, and t he ability or willingness to sustain those systems has been called int o question. In this paper we discuss a number of issues related broadl y to population aging in Canada and the associated social ''costs,'' i ncluding the costs of public services. We conclude that while populati on-related cost increases should be expected, and reallocations of res ources required, the overall increases should be of manageable proport ions.