Ontario’s 2023 budget release is set for March 23. Will the Ford government finally invest in strengthening programs and services such as health care and education or continue to create chaos while cutting taxes and privatizing health care?
On paper it looks like Canada’s real hourly wage flat lined between September 2019 and September 2022 with a paltry increase of just 13 cents. But without changes in the composition of the labour market the average hourly wage would have been even worse.
Air travellers are frustrated, and for good reason. A shortage of workers in the industry has clashed with rapidly returning demand for air travel to create cascading flight delays, lost luggage, cancellations and other disruptions at airports around the world.
These problems have been experienced at airports around the world, but Canada’s airports have been the worst.
By Navjeet Sidhu, National Representative, Research Department
As Ontario heads towards a June 2nd election, there are increasing concerns regarding the growing lack of income security and affordability in the province.
Inflation continues to be a very hot topic, both in public policy conversations and around the bargaining table. This third blog in the research department’s “Focus on Inflation Series’ looks more closely at worker wages and the effect inflation is having on purchasing power.
Ontario’s recent decision to raise the provincial wage floor to $15 (including for servers) caught many by surprise. The governing Progressive Conservatives campaigned to scrap this exact pay hike when they ran for government back in 2018. Nonetheless, the 65-cent increase is welcome news and – once again – sparks a conversation on the need for living wages across the country.
By Kaylie Tiessen, National Representative, Research Department
Canada’s top-line inflation measure hit an 18-year high in September 2021 at a rate of 4.4% compared to one year earlier.
September marked the sixth month in a row that year-over-year inflation is above the Bank of Canada’s target rate of 1% to 3%. That trend sparked much shock-inducing commentary stirring up fear and concern.
By Sune Sandbeck, National Representative, Research Department
The debate over what to do about inflation has been heating up over the past few months. With the annual growth in the consumer price index (CPI) reaching 4.4% in September, calls are growing louder for the Bank to accelerate its plans to increase interest rates.
What does it mean to love Newfoundland and Labrador’s oil workers in a time of climate crisis and global energy transformations? The answer: supporting a just transition.
This is a “code red” moment for humanity as the consequences of the climate crisis unfold around the world and here at home. If nothing is done, people will suffer in myriad ways, including the careers of oil and gas workers.
While Premier Andrew Furey is contemplating cutting wages and regressing working conditions for people across the province, as recommended by Moya Greene in her Premier’s Economic Recovery Team (PERT) ‘Big Reset’ Report, governments and advisors the world over are talking about building back better with inclusive growth policies that ensure no one gets left behind.
By now, many people in the province are very familiar with ‘The Big Reset’ – the plan put forward by the Premier’s Economic Recovery Team (PERT) meant to stimulate the economy, create jobs and attract young people to the province.
If the government thinks that the PERT plan will accomplish this goal it is sorely mistaken and workers will pay the price.
As Unifor marks National Indigenous Peoples Day and we come together to celebrate the heritage and history of the first peoples of this land, our thoughts turn to the continuing barriers that Indigenous people face in Canada due to structural racism and the violent and ongoing legacies of settler colonialism.
It’s been more than a year since the coronavirus pandemic took hold and air transportation was severely restricted.
Statistics Canada released the latest economic statistics on air travel this week. Unsurprisingly the numbers paint a troubling picture.
Large Canadian airlines carried less than 800,000 people in January. That’s nearly 90% less than the number of passengers the same airlines carried in January 2020.Operating revenues are down 85% compared to January 2020. GDP created by the industry fell even further, to just 11% of pre-COVID levels.
This past year, workers experienced unemployment on a scale never before seen in Canada. At its first wave peak in June 2020, some 2.7 million workers in this country had no job. The magnitude of these losses effectively paralyzed the Employment Insurance system, requiring alternative means of income support via the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).
While we continue to wait on the federal government’s belated promise to implement a $15 federal minimum wage, questions often arise as to how future rate increases should be handled. While the government has identified wage increases based on the rate of inflation as a possible way forward, other metrics, such as using the median hourly wage, proposed in U.S.
On October 26, 2020, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development began an in-depth study on zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs) in Canada. Initiated through a Bloc Quebecois motion, the Committee seeks to “examine additional measures that could be taken to encourage the production and purchase of zero-emission vehicles including a Zero-Emission Vehicle Act.”
In September, the federal government and the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation launched the Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI), a $1 billion housing program meant to support the creation of up to 3,000 new affordable housing units, the acquisition of land, and the conversion and rehabilitation of existing buildings to affordable housing. The RHI is part of the federal government’s National Housing Strategy, an ambitious 10-year, $55 billion-plus plan launched in November 2017 that will create 100,000 new housing units and repair or renew thousands more.
The dust had barely settled on the 2018-19 trade dispute between U.S. and Canada when the Trump administration announced in August that tariffs would be re-imposed on Canada in response to a supposed ‘surge’ in Canadian primary aluminum imports. Thankfully, the second round of tariffs was short-lived, lasting only a month before it was repealed.
Last month, it was reported that the Liberal caucus identified a guaranteed basic income as the top policy priority to debate and vote on at the party’s upcoming November national convention. This comes as little surprise. The COVID-19 pandemic and catastrophic job loss that ensued has intensified calls for the strengthening of Canada’s social safety net and income security programs that have proven to be inadequate during times of economic crisis.
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