Federal budgets over the past four decades have under-invested in younger Canadians in comparison to older Canadians, despite research showing that social spending earlier in life leads to better health outcomes, says a new study.

"We are not spending in line with what the evidence tells us is most likely to increase our life expectancy and to prevent avoidable deaths," Paul Kershaw, a professor at the school of population and public health at the University of British Columbia, told CBC Radio's The House.

Kershaw's research found that, since 1976, successive governments have increased investment on retirees four times faster than they have on Canadians under the age of 45.

The result, he said, has been a missed opportunity to prevent many of the health problems that drive up spending on medical care later in life.

Paul Kershaw, a professor at University of British Columbia's School of Population and Public Health and the Founder of Generation Squeeze, says it’s time to shift the scales and budget more for people under the age of 45 because he says a disproportionate amount of federal spending that goes to older generations. 9:27

"One of the things that Canadians tend to do a lot is we tend to wait [until] problems have happened," Kershaw said. "People fall sick and then we invest a lot in our medical care system, when we could prevent so much illness and promote well-being by optimizing the conditions in which families are raising their kids going forward."

Kershaw said federal spending priorities need to be re-focused on Canadians in their 20s, 30s and 40s by boosting social spending on things like child care, poverty reduction, housing and education.

"This doesn't have to be a zero sum game between getting it right for my mom's demographic as a group of aging retirees and getting it right for her kids and grandchildren," said Kershaw.

"However, there needs to be some political will to find that balance."