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Media and Video Coverage of Fossil Fuel Transition Report
The Centre for Future Work recently released a major report, commissioned by Environmental Defence, analyzing the labour market implications of the accelerating transition to renewable energy systems and away from fossil fuels. The report generated significant media coverage and related video and educational resources. Here are some links: Commentary in Globe and Mail summarizing main arguments. Feature on CBC TV’s Power and Politics discussing fossil fuel transitions in light of the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline. Dr. Jim Stanford on Power and Politics Feature on CBC Radio’s What on Earth program discussing the report and how fair employment transitions can be supported. Feature article in Alberta Politics on…
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Delaying Makes the Transition Worse
Fossil fuel industries have already shed 50,000 jobs since 2014, as private employers respond to falling prices and falling profits by sacking workers, restructuring operations, and automating production. So far this transition away from fossil fuel employment has been driven by the profit-maximizing decisions of companies – without the planning and support required to reduce dislocation and take full advantage of alternative job opportunities. In this commentary originally published in the Globe and Mail, Jim Stanford argues a gradual, planned transition, with ample supports for early retirement, retraining, relocation, and income stability, could ensure that the switch to renewable energy sources occurs without lay-offs and community distress. The commentary summarizes…
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Transition Plan for Workers can Prevent Unemployment as Fossil Fuels are Phased Out
New research from the Centre for Future Work demonstrates that with prudent long-term planning, the coming phase-out of fossil fuel production and use can be managed without causing unemployment for fossil fuel workers. Employment Transitions and the Phase-Out of Fossil Fuels, by Jim Stanford (Economist and Director of the Centre for Future Work) shows that fossil fuel industries directly account for 170,000 jobs in Canada – less than 1% of total employment. A 20-year phase-out of fossil fuels implies an annual reduction of fossil fuel employment of around 8,500 jobs annually: the number of jobs typically created by the Canadian economy every ten days. With a clear timetable for phase-out,…
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Rebuilding Canada’s Economy Must Start with Rebuilding Work
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis have shone an unforgiving spotlight on several long-standing fractures in Canada’s labour market. Repairing those structural weaknesses is an essential precondition for re-opening the economy — and keeping it open — once the immediate health emergency passes and we start heading back to work. Failing to address those challenges will amplify the consequences of this crisis for millions of Canadians, as well as our overall social and economic stability. And it will leave us more vulnerable to the next pandemic, or comparable shock of some other sort. Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford was invited to participate in a new project, Rebuild…
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rabble.ca Podcast with Jim Stanford on Making Work Better After COVID
The Canadian on-line news site rabble.ca has produced a new podcast from a presentation which Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford recently gave to rabble’s Members’ Council. The presentation draws on the Centre’s recent report, Ten Ways the COVID-19 Pandemic Must Change Work for Good. To hear or download the full podcast, please visit rabble’s podcast page here: Economist Jim Stanford talks about the future of work — during COVID-19 times and beyond.
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Podcast on the Economics of Capitalism in a Crisis
Rational RationalReminder is a fascinating podcast series hosted by Benjamin Felix and Cameron Passmore. They work in the financial services sector (in Ottawa), but their series ranges very widely into broader economic, financial, and social issues. Episode #106 features a full hour interview with Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford. The conversation covered many aspects of the COVID-19 economic crisis and how government must respond – including debunking knee-jerk fears about government debt, and rejecting demands for fiscal austerity. It also delved into the nature of economics and how it could become a more realistic and socially embedded discipline. See video of the full conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=G1kKktotDGM
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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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Newspaper and Video Coverage of New COVID-19 Report
The Centre for Future Work has released its first major Canadian report, titled 10 Ways the COVID-19 Pandemic Must Change Work for Good. The report, by Economist and Director Jim Stanford, shows how the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed long-standing fractures in Canada’s labour market – and argues those fractures must be repaired if the economy is to successfully and sustainably recover from the current unprecedented downturn. The report (co-published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives) was featured in extensive front page coverage in the Toronto Star, written by business reporter Jacques Gallant. See his full story here. We have also prepared a short video that summarizes the report, and…
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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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Working From Home Helps, but is No Panacea
A version of this commentary originally appeared in the Toronto Star. Millions of Canadians have been doggedly working from home through the pandemic. It’s inspired endless memes and laments on social media: Zoom meetings in pyjamas, kids running amok with office papers, super-sized data and electricity bills. To be sure, there are many economic benefits of home work. It maintains at least partial production, while respecting physical distancing and flattening the curve. On one hand, those who can work from home are lucky. They keep earning, but without the risks of infection facing those who must go out to work. But there are also many challenges and risks associated with…