Wealth inequality: new report shows how many billionaires live in Quebec

A Canadian flag on dollar banknotes. (Getty Images)

A new report on wealth inequality shows just how many ultra-rich people there are in Quebec and across Canada.

Not surprisingly, Canada’s most populous province topped the list of having the most billionaire families, with 38 in Ontario in 2023.

In second place was Quebec, which has 27 billionaire families, according to Canadians for Tax Fairness, a non-profit, non-partisan group.

British Columbia has nine billionaire families, while there are six in Alberta, four in Atlantic Canada, and two in the Prairies.

The report, Show Me the Money: A Provincial Overview of Extreme Wealth in Canada, comes at a time when wealth inequality continues to rise, and Quebec is no exception.

“At a time when nearly 668,000 Quebecers live in poverty, 590 families have over $100 million in wealth,” said Jared A. Walker, executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness, in an interview on Friday.

The report shows that Quebec has the highest shares of wealth held by the wealthiest 1 per cent and 0.1 per cent in the province, with the 1 per cent having an average of $18 million.

Unlike Ontario and B.C., where the price of homes drives up a typical family’s wealth, Quebec’s low homeownership rates push families’ wealth down on average.

The median family in Quebec has $286,000, while in Ontario it’s $500,000 and $632,000 in B.C.

Taxing the rich

According to the report, the share of wealth held by the wealthiest families has increased between 1999 and 2023, and while just 3,380 families accumulated at least $100 million in wealth in each province, 4.4 million people lived in families below the poverty line.

“The concentration of wealth in a few hands is a direct corollary of the affordability crisis facing so many Canadians — the more wealth hoarded by a few, the less wealth is available for the rest of us as a form of financial security, a retirement nest egg, or to help pay for a down payment in the ever-less-affordable housing market," the authors wrote.

“Furthermore, with the extreme concentration of wealth comes the extreme concentration of political power. This is because wealth doesn’t just buy personal affluence; it comes with control over jobs and investment, and greater influence on politicians and policy.”

The report also explored ways to implement wealth taxes, including a proposal by Québec Solidaire to impose a 1 per cent tax on wealth above $25 million and a 2 per cent tax on wealth above $100 million. The measures, introduced nationally, would generate more than $19 billion in the first year.

Walker said that money can be better used for all Quebecers to fix things like roads, schools, and public transit.

“Such a small group of people have such a disproportionate amount of economic power that if we bring back just a little bit — if we ask them to pay just a little bit more to bring their share just a little bit closer to fair — we can do so many things for so many people who need them, and we can make life better for everybody in the province,” Walker said.

The report was co-authored by Silas Xuereb, an economist and policy analyst at Canadians for Tax Fairness, and Geoffroy Boucher, an economist and head of government relations at Observatoire québécois des inégalités.