The economic impact of Ontario's minimum-wage hike on the province's lowest earners has received a great deal of attention, but the effect is felt more broadly by employers who face labour cost increases.
Ontario increased its minimum wage to $14 from $11.60 on Jan. 1 and plans another hike – to $15 an hour – next year. As predicted, some businesses responded immediately by reducing hiring, cutting employee work hours, reducing benefits and charging higher prices. Further, Ontario experienced a decline of more than 59,000 part-time jobs in January, as highlighted by Statistics Canada. While it is too early to attribute this decline to any specific factor, the sharp wage hike is unlikely to have…
The federal government announced sweeping new legislation on Thursday that will govern how it will consider major energy projects. Exactly how the new legislation will affect the sector will become apparent as parliamentarians, energy companies and the public dissect and debate it. No matter what, the legislation is a step forward in the long-simmering debate over how to review a major interprovincial pipeline application. The announcement addresses the problem that has had the largest cost on the competitiveness of Canada's energy sector.
One after another, government policies are piling on to affect the competitiveness of energy producers in Western Canada. Much attention has been paid to carbon taxes, but a lack of market…
The Canadian labour market beat expectations and performed strongly in 2017 based on various indicators, specifically job creation and the unemployment rate. At the same time, however, hourly-wage growth shows no sign that the labour market is approaching maximum employment.
An economy reaches maximum employment when all available workers have jobs except those who are between jobs or are new entrants into the labour market. Usually, this results in stronger wage growth as firms struggle to fill vacant positions.
Canada generated more than 420,000 new jobs in 2017, while the average annual unemployment rate fell to 6.4 per cent – the lowest rate since 2008. More importantly, the vast majority of job gains (93 per cent)…
