Jobs and the Economy

Canada has the right ingredients to be an automotive powerhouse

Originally published in The Hill Times

Jerry Dias is the national president of Unifor, the largest private-sector union in Canada. Brian Kingston is the president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association.

As Canadians prepare to head to the polls in September, one important issue they will be weighing is the future of Canada’s economy.

It’s time to flip the script on Employment Insurance

Canada’s social safety net - including Employment Insurance – has been dismantled bit by bit as part of a deliberate restructuring of our economy to suit the needs of business, not workers.

It was a failed experiment, and needs to be reversed.

There was a philosophical and ideological shift over a generation that put individualism first and foremost - a belief in working strictly for wages, rather than passion or principle, and shamed anything that looked like getting something for nothing.