Leagh Turner – The Frictionless Future For The World Of Work

From: Leagh Turner To: Canadian Employers Date: March 12, 2021 Re: The Frictionless Future for the World of Work COVID-19 has accelerated changes in almost every aspect of daily life, especially work, where a sea of change is breaking decades-old paradigms to meet the demands of a more fluid and frictionless workforce. And as organizations navigate these uncertain […]

Mahboubi, Skuterud – An Economic Reality Check On Canadian Immigration (part II)

From: Leagh Turner To: Canadian Employers Date: March 12, 2021 Re: The Frictionless Future for the World of Work COVID-19 has accelerated changes in almost every aspect of daily life, especially work, where a sea of change is breaking decades-old paradigms to meet the demands of a more fluid and frictionless workforce. And as organizations navigate these uncertain […]

Tammy Schirle – The Illusion Of A Narrowing Gender Wage Gap In 2020

From: Tammy Schirle To: Canadians Concerned about Gender Equity Date: March 8, 2021 Re: The Illusion of a Narrowing Gender Wage Gap in 2020 The gender wage gap in the private sector has narrowed – from 18.7 percent in 2019 to 16.9 percent in 2020. In normal times, this would be remarkable. But 2020 was not normal, and […]

Help Wanted: How to Address Labour Shortages in Healthcare and Improve Patient Access

COVID Highlights Acute Shortage of Healthcare Workers This report evaluates factors contributing to healthcare labour shortages and investigates the inter-relationships between access to health services, the number of healthcare providers, compensation rates and migration patterns. Recommendations include a critical and strategic examination of fee schedules for physician services, with the goal of reducing the average cost per service […]

Green, Simard-duplain, Siu – In-person K-12 Schooling Is Essential To The Canadian Economy

From: David A. Green, Gaëlle Simard-Duplain, and Henry E. Siu To: Policymakers across Canada Date: January 27, 2021 Re: In-Person K-12 Schooling is Essential to the Canadian Economy The extent to which K-12 schools should remain open remains at the forefront of discussions on long-term pandemic management. Transmission and infection rates among children are lower than for adults. At […]

How much has the COVID-19 pandemic damaged the economy? – Globe and Mail Op-Ed

Along with much of the world, Canada’s economy has suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic and other events in 2020, notably the shock to global oil markets. How badly? An examination of the immediate data and longer trends indicates significant damage, with a lengthy recovery period ahead.

Let’s start with labour markets, where there are signs of recovery but also growing evidence of damage. The unemployment rate exploded to nearly 14 per cent from 6 per cent during the shutdown from March to May. The rate has dropped steadily since as many displaced workers have been re-engaged, but the second pandemic wave and renewed shutdowns in many provinces have meant more job losses. Employment fell by 63,000 in December, and…

William B.P. Robson – Let’s Drop The ‘We Can’t Go Back’ Post-covid Fantasies

From: William B.P. Robson To: Canadians Contemplating 2021 Date: January 5, 2021 Re: Let’s Drop the ‘We Can’t Go Back’ Post-COVID Fantasies Of all the COVID-inspired clichés of 2020, “we can’t go back to how we were before” gets my vote for most trying. Taken literally, it is empty. We can’t undo the deaths, restore students’ lost instruction, […]

2020 Hindsight – William Robson: Our Year Of Magical Thinking – Financial Post Op-ed

Of all the COVID-inspired clichés of 2020, “we can’t go back to how we were before” gets my vote for most trying.

Taken literally, it is empty. We can’t undo the deaths, restore students’ lost instruction, give young people the first jobs they didn’t get, erase the huge debts, enjoy the travel and human contact that didn’t happen. No, we can’t go back to 2019 — which is too bad.

Taken as an exhortation — “we shouldn’t go back to how we were before” — it is too often a prelude to magical thinking, a great leap to some environmental, economic or political nirvana previously out of reach. That is silly. A sick person who was never an athlete can dream of completing a triathlon. But their first task is to recover. In the same…

La prochaine vague : Le marché du travail canadien face à l’automatisation

Les groupes démographiques clés occupent des emplois plus vulnérables à l’automatisation Les principaux groupes démographiques sont plus vulnérables que la moyenne à la perte d’emplois par l’automatisation. L’auteure Rosalie Wyonch évalue l’impact probable de l’automatisation technologique sur le marché du travail canadien et compare ces résultats aux prévisions antérieures. Elle trouve une proportion d’emplois à […]

The Next Wave: Automation and Canada’s Labour Market

Key Demographic Groups in Jobs more Vulnerable to Automation Key demographic groups are more vulnerable to job loss through automation than average. Author Rosalie Wyonch assesses the likely impact of technological automation on Canada’s labour market and compares these results to past predictions. She finds a lower proportion of employment at high risk of automation […]

David Gray – What Does The Pandemic Teach Us About Ei?

From: David Gray To: The Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Date: November 23, 2020 Re: What Does the Pandemic Teach us about EI? The COVID-19 pandemic brought labour market conditions to Depression-era levels during the months of April and May, and as of October, the unemployment rate of 8.9 […]

Climbing Out of COVID

New C.D. Howe Institute Book Chronicles COVID-19 Policy Insights A new book from the C.D. Howe Institute provides an overview of the Institute’s critical policy recommendations made in response to the developing COVID-19 pandemic. “Climbing Out of COVID” compiles communiqués from the Institute’s Crisis Working Groups, as well as Intelligence Memos and op-eds, published up […]

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