Government and Democracy

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.

Linda MacNeil, Unifor Atlantic Regional Director

Last week’s budget made some important, headline-making investments, but when you consider the details, these broad announcements still do not cover the gaps that Nova Scotia’s workers need filled.

The budget announced that funding for continuing care, including long-term care and home care would increase by 13% over the 2020 budget plan, topping the $1 billion mark for the first time.

The refrain “if you’re sick, stay home” is not just smart workplace policy, it’s also smart public health policy.

Of course, COVID-19 has elevated the importance of this approach to new levels. Preventing the spread of COVID-19 in workplaces is a matter of life and death.

This month the premier acknowledged the link between provincial workplace policies and public health by legislating paid time off for workers to get the vaccine.

It’s time to take the next step and legislate employer-paid sick leave for all Saskatchewan’s workers.

The past year has laid bare the inequities in our society. 

COVID-19 has shown that workers struggling to get by on minimum wage – from personal support workers, to grocery and warehouse workers – and those in the gig economy are not only essential, but put themselves at risk to keep our communities running during a pandemic.

Working families across our province have been forced to make impossible decisions between staying home when they are sick or going to work and risk spreading a deadly virus to their co-workers. 

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).