The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Canada's national measures of household debt conceal growing financial pain among lower-income households, young people and highly indebted homeowners, according to new research. The Globe's Erica Alini writes that an analysis by Mawakina Bafale and Peter MacKenzie at the C.D. Howe Institute found that Canadians' ability to save and repay debt is sharply divided across income and generational lines. While households in the top 20 per cent of earners saved about a third of their disposable income last year, those in the bottom 60 per cent were spending beyond their incomes. At the same time, adults under 25 on average reported at the end of 2025 a 50-per-cent chance of missing a debt payment, the report noted, citing Bank of Canada data. By comparison, those over 54 rated that chance at less than 1 per cent. While Canada isn't teetering on the verge of a broad household debt crisis, pockets of financial distress among lower-income and young borrowers remain a vulnerability for the economy. "Canada has a real but concentrated debt problem," the authors wrote. Over all, however, Canada's main measures of household debt are no longer flashing red.