Opinion: 'If Canada is to succeed in this global competition, we need our jobs and our communities to be people magnets,' writes ArmineYalnizyan. 'One hundred and fifty years ago, Canada led the way. Perhaps we can again.'
24 jailed printers from the Globe newspaper. Their crime: going on strike to reduce their hours to a nine-hour day. The workers won, trade union rights became Canadian law and Labour Day, together with parades that still echo that first march, spread around the world.
As well, the proportion of almost every age group between 15 and 64 is now greater than before the pandemic. We even have more people aged 65 and older working. In fact we’ve added almost half a million jobs on top of our pre-pandemic count. More people are working, not less. The problem is there’s more demand for labour than there is supply.The single biggest factor behind today’s labour shortages is an aging population. Simply put, there are more exits than entrants to the labour force.
The thing is, we are not preparing for the inevitable. We are just reacting. China, whose one-child policy from the 1980s portends serious labour shortages in the coming decades, is already starting to worry about not having enough workers.But please keep in mind that demographic realities also offer us the opportunity to create a remarkable new world of work that provides better skill matches for employers, better work-life balance for workers, and better life chances for more people.
We know the best benefits are portable benefits, so we could make access to pharmacare, dental care, vision care, and mental health care universal, not tied to an employer or to the size of your bank account. We could guarantee all workers can count on 10 paid sick days a year and add paid leaves to help workers step away from their paid jobs over the course of their lives to do the unpaid care work for their loved ones or themselves after a serious illness, or update their skills.
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