Op-Eds
Free licensed child care. It sounds like a parents’ dream. But look a little closer at the Government of Ontario’s recently announced plan to deliver free licensed child care for preschoolers, and flaws emerge. Beyond the arguably late starting age of 2½ years, this initiative could have unwelcome consequences due to its limited accessibility and its potential to create excess demand for licensed preschool care.
Certainly the need for a solution is great. Gradual rises in dual-income-earner families and the employment rate of women in Ontario have led to higher needs for child care over the past few decades. But cost is probably the main barrier to access. According to the latest family survey by Statistics Canada, about 43…
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 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)…
Recently, Statistics Canada released the final batch of results from the 2016 census. It included education statistics for Canadians – including Indigenous Canadians.
Perhaps Indigenous education outcomes are the most important findings in this final batch, and among Indigenous education outcomes, perhaps the most important are high school completion results among young adults. They provide a snapshot of how Canada's K-12 school systems are performing. For the record, among non-Indigenous young adults (20-24) in 2016, 92 per cent have at least a high school certificate. (Canada is above the overall OECD average.) Among Métis, 84 per cent have completed high school. Among First Nations young adults living off reserve, 75 per cent…
Canada faces a troubling trend in the skills levels of its work force. Despite more Canadians obtaining a postsecondary education between 2003 and 2012, literacy and numeracy skills have slid. What gives?
According to OECD international surveys of adult skills in seven participating countries, including the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Italy and the United States, the problem with declining numeracy scores is widespread. But Canada and Norway were the only countries with a drop in literacy skills. For Canada, this is a paradox: We have the largest share of the working-age population with tertiary education among these Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.
Earning a…
