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Yes, Public Sector Jobs Count, Too
B.C.’s unemployment has been among the lowest in Canada for several years, economic growth and business investment have been among the strongest, and the province now has the highest hourly wages for employees of any province. Yet some business commentators try to debunk that record, claiming it’s all due to public sector spending and hiring.
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The Role of the Public Sector in Rebuilding After COVID-19
Canadians have understandably turned to government for protection and support during the COVOD-19 pandemic. But the public sector will also need to play a vital role in leading the reconstruction of Canada’s economy once the pandemic has subsided. This has been emphasized in previous Centre for Future Work research, including our PowerShare report on how work must be improved after COVID, and Jim Stanford’s call for a ‘post-war’ economic rebuilding strategy led by expansive government investment. In this feature interview with Cory Hare for ATA News (the journal of the Alberta Teachers’ Association), Jim Stanford explains why expanded public sector investment, service provision, and hiring will be vital to continued…
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Reconstruction After COVID-19 Will Require Sustained Government Leadership
The Centre’s Director Jim Stanford had a feature interview yesterday with Michael Enright on CBC Radio’s public affairs show, Sunday Edition, on how Canada’s economy will rebuild after the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. A full recording and an abridged transcript is available on the CBC site here. Stanford argued that government investment, income security payments, expanded public services, and direct public sector employment will all be crucial to lift Canada’s economic activity back to its potential, once it is safe to go back to work. “This has actually been a real-time experiment that a national government — particularly one that has its own currency, as we do in Canada — has…
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Trust has Hard, Economic Value
The COVID-19 pandemic has proven, again, that society is not actually built around individuals all out to maximize their self-interest (as in the neoclassical fable). It works best with cooperation, reciprocity and trust. Valuing and investing in social trust is not a “feel-good” sentiment. It’s a proven, real source of economic and social advantage. Jim Stanford explores the economic value of trust, in this commentary which was originally published by the Toronto Star. The Economic Importance of Social Trust It was like a scene from a zombie movie: crowds of screaming protestors charged the doors of state legislatures in several U.S. states, opposing physical distancing restrictions. Many of them believe…
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A New ‘Marshall Plan’ to Rebuild After the Pandemic
Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford was recently interviewed on CBC News Network to discuss his proposal for a massive, government-led rebuilding plan to support the economy’s re-opening once the immediate health emergency of COVID-19 has passed. He stressed that private sector businesses will not be able to lead a normal ‘cyclical’ recovery, given the unprecedented speed and severity of the current downturn. Government will need to play a leading role in sponsoring new investment, permanently expanding public services, and expanding direct public job creation to help repair the shattered labour market. His conversation with CBC’s Natasha Fatah is posted here.
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Recovery from Pandemic Will Need an Ambitious Rebuilding Plan
The unprecedented shutdown of much of the economy to limit spread of the coronavirus is not like an “ordinary” recession – and recovering from it will require powerful leadership from government. Director Jim Stanford compares it to recovering from a war, and argues for an equivalent to the Marshall Plan that helped western Europe rebuild after World War II. This article was originally published by the Institute for Research on Public Policy. A Marshall Plan to Rebuild after Coronavirus Economic policy-makers have been understandably focused on addressing the immediate economic shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic: developing new income supports for the millions who will need them, stabilizing the credit system…