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Pearson Centre Webinar on Economics After COVID, Featuring Director Jim Stanford
Canada’s macroeconomy continues to grapple with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting restrictions on normal work and economic activity. Data confirm we are well into the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the impacts on a wide range of indicators (including employment, incomes, consumer confidence, business investment, and government revenues) have yet to be fully felt. To discuss the economic outlook, and the government policies that will be required to respond to it, Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford recently joined a webinar hosted by the Pearson Centre, a progressive think tank based in Ottawa. He advanced a range of far-reaching measures, including:…
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There are Opportunities as Well as Threats for Workers in the COVID-19 Recession
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis poses many obvious threats to workers in all industries: job loss, reduced hours, employer demands for concessions in wages and benefits… and of course the risk of contracting the virus at work. However, the pandemic is also highlighting long-standing weaknesses in Canada’s labour market structures and policies – and opening promising opportunities to win improvements in those structures and policies. Journalist Chelsea Nash, labour beat reporter with the Canadian digital news site rabble.ca, has published an inspiring article discussing those opportunities, and analyzing what unions and equality advocates will need to do to make the most of them. Her article features extensive quotes…
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Ten Ways to Improve Work After COVID-19 Pandemic
Governments, employers, and unions must all work urgently to address several critical weaknesses in Canada’s employment laws and policies to ensure the post-COVID re-opening of the economy can be safe and sustained. That’s the core message of a new research report from the Centre for Future Work. The report is the first publication from the Centre’s new PowerShare research program, undertaken in partnership with the Atkinson Foundation and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The study, by the Centre’s Director Jim Stanford, lists 10 specific ways jobs need to be protected and strengthened in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down large sections of the national economy.…
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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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Pandemic Forces Us to Rethink What Jobs are Worth
This commentary originally appeared in the Toronto Star. After COVID-19, We Need to Appreciate and Value Essential Work In any public emergency, like the COVID-19 pandemic, society naturally turns to tried-and-true public service professionals for advice, protection, and care. First and foremost, we depend on health care workers risking their own well-being to care for the ill – even in chaotic and over-crowded conditions. Other first responders provide emergency assistance. Utility workers keep the lights on, the water flowing, the mail delivered, and the garbage collected. These jobs are critically important. These workers can’t take leave. They can’t work from home. Not coincidentally, most of these jobs are in the…