Parisa Mahboubi on The Agenda – Time for a Four Day Work Week?
Most companies pivoted to remote work at the beginning of the pandemic. And many people either changed or quit jobs. In the wake of all that, the idea of the four-day work-week is coming to the fore. Can a long weekend, every week, be the answer to everything from workplace productivity to fighting climate change? To discuss this, The Agenda welcomed the C.D. Howe Institute’s Senior Policy Analyst Parisa Mahboubi; Andrew Barnes, author of The 4 Day Week: How the flexible work revolution can increase productivity, profitability and wellbeing, and help create a sustainable future; and the Rotman School of Management’s David Zweig.
Parisa Mahboubi – Canada’s Skills Development Challenges
From: Parisa Mahboubi To: Canada’s Ministers of Employment Date: November 16, 2021 Re: Canada’s Skills Development Challenges The job market is in constant flux. Automation, digital innovation, globalization and demographic trends are reshaping the market, causing structural changes and shifting the skill requirements for a productive workforce – and now COVID. COVID-19 related restrictions have resulted in high unemployment […] Mahboubi, Irawan – Embracing Population Aging: Staying Young Through Life-Long Learning
To: Canada’s Ministers of Employment From: Parisa Mahboubi and Ivannia Irawan Date: November 3, 2021 Re: Embracing Population Aging: Staying Young Through Life-Long Learning Population aging – accelerated by improvements in life expectancy not least – has been an unpleasant reality for policymakers around the world as working-age populations dwindle and the costs of healthcare […] Steer clear of EI for gig workers – Financial Post Op-Ed
It all seems so straightforward and evident: why not cover vulnerable “gig” workers, an often-marginalized group in the economy, who were hit so hard by the pandemic, under EI? In June, a parliamentary committee recommended that Employment and Social Development Canada conduct consultations on ways to provide self-employed persons, including those in the gig economy, with access to regular Employment Insurance benefits. ESDC has responded and formal consultations along these lines are forthcoming. They need to include a sober, detailed analysis of the problems involved.
The first item on the agenda ought to be a clear and agreed definition of gig work, which is critical to insuring potential income losses. A recent survey…
The Skills Imperative: Workforce Development Strategies Post-COVID
Canada Lags Peers in Upskilling Workers, Needs to Plug Gaps Canada stands below the top-performing countries in skills development, and has no comprehensive approach toward lifelong learning, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. Authors Parisa Mahboubi and Momanyi Mokaya find that long-term unemployed and low-income, low-educated workers are slipping between the […] S3 E20: The Gig Economy and EI with David Gray
The gig economy worker has been doing much of the heavy lifting during COVID-19, delivering everything from shopping packages to dinner. But when a gig worker loses their job, they fall through Employment Insurance holes in Canada’s social safety net. Author David Gray asks: should gig workers be covered by the EI regime? The answer, not surprisingly, […] David Gray – Gig Workers and Employment Insurance: No Easy Answers
From: David Gray To: Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough Date: October 22, 2021 Re: Gig Workers and Employment Insurance: No Easy Answers COVID-19 has laid bare the important shortfalls of Canada’s rigid 1970s-vintage Employment Insurance system and the pressing need for substantive reforms. EI was originally designed in the late 1940s to cover full-year, full-time workers from the risk of cyclical […] Fourth wave highlights health system’s fragility – The Daily Gleaner Op-Ed
New Brunswick hospitals are on “red alert,” reducing or suspending services to increase capacity for COVID-19 patients as the fourth wave continues. There are 57 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 and 18 in intensive care, at the time of writing – a number that will continue to fluctuate in the days and weeks to come.
New Brunswickers might reasonably ask if the hospital system is truly threatened by fewer than 20 critical cases after 18 months of a global pandemic. Unfortunately, the province-wide red alert shows that it is.
Why and how is this possible? To this, there is no simple answer.
In less than a month, the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 has nearly doubled, and the number in ICU has…
Should ‘gig’ Workers be Covered by the EI regime? The Challenges and Pitfalls
Providing Gig Workers with EI: No Easy Answer There is no easy solution to the challenge of including gig workers or self-employed workers in Canada’s Employment Insurance (EI) system, according to a new report released by the C.D. Howe Institute. Author David Gray casts an evaluative lens on the case – especially as ‘gig workers’ […] Parisa Mahboubi – COVID Benefits are Ending. Will Workers Return?
From: Parisa Mahboubi To: Canadian labour force observers Date: October 4, 2021 Re: COVID Benefits are Ending. Will Workers Return? Canada’s COVID-related economic recovery measures are set to end soon. What are the likely outcomes and what are the potential steps the federal government can take to soften the blow? In the early days of the pandemic, the […] With pandemic benefits ending, will the unemployed return to the work force? – Globe and Mail Op-Ed
All COVID-related economic recovery measures in Canada are set to end soon. Employers who have been having trouble filling vacancies are hoping this will spur a flood of people back into the work force, but unfortunately for business owners, the situation isn’t quite that simple.
In the early days of the pandemic, the federal government introduced the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) to ensure that a broad range of Canadians affected by the pandemic stayed afloat. Government supports like this and the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (which is scheduled to run until Oct. 23, 2021) sustained many people and businesses.
But the economy is in a different place now. The number of unemployed people was 1.4 million in…
Matt Malone – Non-competes Are Holding Canada Back – So Let’s Ban Them
From: Matt Malone To: Canadians Concerned about employment law Date: September 22, 2021 Re: Non-competes are holding Canada back – so let’s ban them Canadian political leaders often talk about unleashing innovation. California did it with just 24 words. “Every contract by which anyone is restrained from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind is […]