{"id":23775,"date":"2019-05-09T19:08:35","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T23:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23775"},"modified":"2019-05-09T19:08:44","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T23:08:44","slug":"mps-report-canadas-employment-landscape-shifting-and-uncertain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/mps-report-canadas-employment-landscape-shifting-and-uncertain\/","title":{"rendered":"MP’s REPORT: Canada\u2019s Employment Landscape: Shifting and Uncertain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Leona Alleslev, MP
Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t matter\nwhere I go or who I speak with – the message is clear and consistent \u2013\nCanadians are concerned about the changing nature of employment. It is not only\nabout the quantity of jobs but also about the quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who have full\ntime jobs \u2013 and they do consider themselves the \u201cluckier\u201d ones – have watched\nas conditions within those jobs have drastically declined  – whether that\u2019s longer working hours and\nmore responsibility for the same pay, the reduction\nof career training programs, the erosion or elimination of pensions and benefits,\nor the constant fear of being laid off as their employer seeks to downsize or\ntrade full time employment positions for part time and contract ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For part time\nworkers the stresses are similar but often compounded by the lack of any\nbenefits and the need to have multiple part time jobs. They often get 0 hours\nin a week or have conflicts between their part time jobs as their employers\nwant them to work during the same periods. Contract workers are the most at\nrisk in the modern employment landscape as many are not contract workers by\nchoice, often performing the same duties as those who are part time or full\ntime. They often have to provide their own equipment, and have no workplace\nhealth and safety, sick days, or vacation time, and can be terminated without\nnotice, cause or compensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no commonly\naccepted definition of precarious employment. Instead, it typically exhibits\nsymptoms such as low pay (sometimes below minimum pay), variable work hours,\nuncertainty in current or future employment, no pension, no weekly minimum\nhours of work, no benefits, no sick pay etc. The lack of a clear, objective\ndefinition prevents the collection of concrete statistics to determine the\nextent of precarious employment and to develop a framework to reduce workplace\ninsecurity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014, 30-32% of\nCanadians were in precarious work, with single parents (51.7%), recent\nimmigrants (40.7%) and visible minorities (34.4%) amongst the highest\npercentage in Ontario alone. The age groups impacted the most were youth (under\n25 years old) who are trying to enter the workforce and seniors (over 65 years\nold) who are unable to retire as they have no pension security to rely upon. In\n2015, more than 26% of Ontario\u2019s workforce was categorized as non-standard\nemployment, including temporary employees, solo self-employed and involuntary\npart-time workers. It is clear that our employment landscape has shifted\nleaving Canadians with not only financial uncertainty, but also the inability\nto plan for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employment instability\naffects the financial, mental and physical health of individuals and their\nfamilies \u2013 and this has consequences on Canadian society. Precarious employment\nnot only affects an individual\u2019s standard of living, but also increases the\ncost to the Canadian taxpayer \u2013 by increasing the demands on our healthcare\nsystem, our Employment Insurance (EI) program, and delivering less income tax\nrevenue to pay for the programs and services that ensure a prosperous economy\nand the well-being of all Canadians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, I hosted\na town hall to discuss this issue and explore several policy areas that might\nimprove both the quality and the quantity of jobs for Canadians. Suggestions\ninclude:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reward Companies\nthat have a high percentage of full time Employees. This could be done by\noffering a lower EI premium than that of companies who have a higher ratio of\npart time to full time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reward Companies\nthat have comprehensive benefit and pension packages for all their workers.\nThis could be provided through incentives or an overall lower corporate tax\nrate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reward Companies\nthat provide career development and training programs. This could be provided\nthrough lower EI premiums or other incentives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To reduce precarious\nemployment, it is critical we begin collecting relevant, robust data that will\nallow the federal government to create comprehensive tax reforms and policies.\nThe federal government must define a legal and policy framework that fosters\nincreased economic security, and positions Canadians to get ahead, and not just\nget by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, do not hesitate to contact me at\nLeona.Alleslev@parl.gc.ca or by phone at 905-773-8358 to let me know your\npriorities for building a better Canada in 2019.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Leona Alleslev, MPAurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill It doesn\u2019t matter where I go or who I speak with – the message is clear and consistent \u2013 Canadians are concerned about the changing nature of employment. It is not only about the quantity of jobs but also about the quality. Those who have full time jobs \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6bt","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 00:27:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}