Who deserves a Just Transition to a cleaner economy? Coal miners, of course! Maybe steel workers, too, and truck drivers? Actually, all working people — and their families — probably need some support. So do the public services they depend on. Perhaps the whole economy needs a Just Transition. But wait, I thought this…
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A month ago, PC Leader Doug Ford floated a trial balloon: he would freeze Ontario’s minimum wage at $14 but take everyone making less than $30,000 a year off of the income tax rolls. At that time, I checked the math and concluded that a $15 minimum wage would leave…
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On March 8, I gave a guest presentation to students in Professor Naomi Lightman’s Sociology of Work class at the University of Calgary. I was joined by Alexander Kulakov and Amit Nade, employment coaches at the Mustard Seed. My PowerPoint slides can be downloaded here. Here are 10 things to know about homelessness…
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Last week’s national jobs report may have included some shocking numbers but looking more closely at the data shows that the Canadian labour market has been on a strong upswing over the last 12 months. With attention grabbing headlines like: Canadian economy loses 88,000 jobs in January and Don’t…
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As if we needed more evidence of growing workforce precarity, the 2016 census recently pointed to the “broader shift from full-time, full-year employment to part-time, part-year work. Overall, in 2015, less than half of all Canadian workers (49.8%) between the ages of 25 and 54 worked full time, all year.”…
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Don’t leap to conclusions from January’s job loss numbers in Ontario. We can’t draw conclusions from one month’s worth of data; The lion’s share of job losses were not concentrated in minimum wage sectors; It will take time for this increase in the minimum wage to work its way through…
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The recent minimum wage increase in Ontario has underscored business sector fear-mongering and mainstream media’s misreporting of the projected economic impacts. But, interestingly, the increase has received significant public support, according to a survey from Forum Research. And while one would expect those currently earning below $15/hr to be enthusiastic,…
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Discussions about raising the minimum wage for workers often generate maximum rage from business. But is there any truth to the arguments and fear mongering? Let’s take a look. 1) The fear mongering is overblown It’s hard to miss the reports predicting job losses as a result of the minimum…
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Over a million workers in Ontario just got a big raise thanks to tireless, bottom-up organizing, but to hear the media tell it, this is a bad news story. The same, tired headlines are back. Wednesday, the CBC ran a story titled, “Minimum wage hikes could cost Canada’s economy 60,000…
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As we continue to dig into university and college finances in Ontario, what becomes apparent is not only the change in revenue sources these institutions are experiencing (which we discuss here). There are also shifts in how and where institutions choose to spend their money. The current strike by college…
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