Perry Work Report for the week of January 25, 2010

January 25, 2010

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Employment Creation: jobs and the economic recovery

Doug Peters and Arthur Donner propose a one year program whereby the federal government would encourage small and medium sized business to hire new employees by eliminating employer and employee employment  insurance payments  and having the federal government pay the employer and employee contributions to the Canadian Pension Plan.

Globe and Mail, January 25, 2010: It's jobs that make a real economic recovery: The tilt to part-time and self-employment suggests major underemployment in Canada, by Doug Peters and Arthur Donner
Job Creation in a Recession

TVO’s The Agenda is running a two part series on jobs:  January 25th program tiled Jobs I: Job Creation in a Recession: A new generation of jobs and government's role in creating them and the January 26th program titled Jobs II: The New Lost Generation: The children of the Baby Boomers - the Echo Boom - were preparing to finish school and reap the rewards it felt it so justly deserved. Now, has the biggest recession since The Great Depression left it a Lost Generation?

Jobs1: Job Creation in a Recession. The panel includes Armine Yalnizyan, a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a graduate of the MIR program and winner of the Morley Gunderson prize in 2003; Karl Moore, Faculty of Management at McGill University; Carmi Levy, an independent technology analyst and journalist; Don Drummond, a senior VP and chief economist with TD Bank Financial Group; and Steve Maich, the editor of Canadian Business magazine.

Jobs II: The New Lost Generation (watch tonight) Panel includes: Philip Oreopoulos is an associate professor of economics at the University of Toronto, Linda Duxbury is a professor at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, Penelope Trunk is CEO of Brazen Careerist, Joyce Chiang graduated from the Académie Internationale des Sciences et Techniques du Sport Masters of Advanced Studies in Sport Administration and Technology program in 2008,Robert Barnard has spent the last 15 years decoding youth, young adults and families. Since 1994 as a founder of DECODE.

Ontario’s Employment Landscape

Click on the link below which is a interactive motion chart tracking the provincial unemployment rate since the start of the decade, focusing on four main groups: Males 25-44; Males 45-64; Females 25-44; Females 45-64.  Armine Yalnizian from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives attributes the lower unemployment rate of older women to older women’s willingness to take lower paying jobs.

TVO The Agenda, January 25, 2010: Ontario’s Employment Landscape

 

Federal / Provincial Conflict Over Pension Prospects

The steering committee of provincial finance ministers studying pension issues in Canada has released its report.  Unlike the commissioned report released by the Federal government in December 2009, this report finds that Canadians will be retiring without adequate funds and on less than retirees in other major economies. The earlier Federal government report by Jack Mintz, which found the Canadian retirement income system to be adequate, was critiqued by Andrew Jackson on the Progressive Economics Forum blog.

Options for Increasing Pension Coverage Among Private Sector Workers in Canada, Steering Committee of Ministers on Pension Coverage and Retirement Income Adequacy, January 2010 (165 pages, PDF)
“The study analyzes various proposals for reform, including expanding the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) or creating a new voluntary supplementary pension plan, but does not make recommendations about which choices should be adopted, and notes other options are also on the table for analysis. “

Summary Report on Retirement Income Adequacy Research, by Jack M. Mintz, Research Director December 18, 2009 (30 pages, PDF) (html version)

Progressive Economics Forum, December 20th, 2009: The Mintz Report and the Pensions Debate Posted by Andrew Jackson

Globe and Mail, January 22, 2010:  Middle-income retirees face pinch: Government pensions in other major developed countries provide far more income to retirees than ours does, report finds, by Janet McFarland

Research Study on the Canadian Retirement Income System Prepared for the Ministry of Finance, Government of Ontario by Bob Baldwin, November 2009 (97 pages, PDF) (html version)

 

A Demoralized Canadian Public Service

“The Gomery Commission concluded that the public service is demoralized. This study seeks to find out why this is so.” The Centre for the Study of Democracy at the School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University, has released a study that compares and contrasts the attitudes of civil servants in both the Ontario and federal public services.  The surveys found that employees are concerned about “internal management issues affecting employee engagement, these influence performance, which in turn influence implementation.” The study makes recommendations under the categories: capacity and performance; attracting and retaining employees; and accountability.

Closing the Implementation Gap: Improving capacity, accountability, performance and human resource quality in the Canadian and Ontario public service, by Thomas S. Axworthy and Julie Burch, Centre for the Study of Democracy, School of Policy Studies, Queens’ University, January 2010 (66 pages, PDF)

 

Role Overload in Canada’s Healthcare System

The study featured in last week’s Perry Work Report is now available on the Sprott School of Business, Carleton University website.
The Etiology and Reduction of Role Overload in Canada’s Health Care Sector , authors Dr. Linda Duxbury, Dr. Christopher Higgins Dr. Sean Dr. Sean Lyons (213 pages, PDF)

Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, January 22, 2010: Hospital workers suffer role overload, study by Professor Linda Duxbury finds -- you can access the executive summary here.

 

EI Reform in Canada

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has released a report on Canada’s Employment insurance system titled Is EI Working for Canada's Unemployed? analyzing the great recession. According to the report unemployed worked are falling through the cracks, as the number of unemployed Canadians not receiving EI jumped from 650,760 in October 2008 to 777,4000 in October 2009. Recommendations for improving the EI system and calling on the federal government to make EI reforms a priority in the upcoming budget are some solutions proposed in this report.

Report, January 25, 2010 (8 pages, PDF)

 

Labour Union Representative on Air Canada Board of Directors

“The unions were granted a seat on the board as part of their agreement last year for a moratorium on their pension payments in the airline’s efforts to avoid a bankruptcy filing. The five unions were also granted a 15% equity stake in the airline collectively, and so long as that stake remains about 2%, they will hold a seat on the board.” (FP) The council of unions includes the Air Canada Pilots Association, the Canadian Airline Dispatchers Association, the Canadian Auto Workers, the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

Globe and Mail, January 22, 2010: Roy Romanow to join Air Canada board: Roy Romanow Former Saskatchewan premier chosen by airline's unions to serve as their representative

Financial Post, January 22, 2010: Romanow selected to represent Air Canada union's on board, by Scott Deveau

 

Listen to Solidarity News

A new weekly presentation of international labour news is being organized on the Internet. The audiocast called Solidarity News  will be available on RadioLabour.net every Monday morning. Solidarity News will focus on union and workers' activities and issues from around the world with special emphasis on emerging market and developing countries. RadioLabour is the brainchild of Marc Belanger -- the founder of SoliNet, which was the first trade union online network back in the 1980s.

 

Benefits Legislation in Canada 2010

Mercer publishes an annual summary of Canadian legislation affecting benefits plans. Canadian legislation covers a broad range of social and tax measures directly affecting employer-sponsored coverage provided to employees. This publication is only available electronically.

Benefits Legislation in Canada 2010 , December 18, 2009: click on Download in centre of page

 

New Ivey Business Journal Issue Available

The Ivey Business Journal has released their January/February 2010 issue focusing on the Asia Pacific, particularly China and their successful fourth-quarter report, as well as information for North American managers looking to capitalize on some of the many opportunities this country currently has to offer. 
Featured in this issue is In China, it’s not about the economy. Will Canada get it? adapted from a speech given by Yuen Pau Woo, President and CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, on November 25, 2009, at the Toronto campus of the Richard Ivey School of Business.

For Yuen Pau Woo’s full article, click here.

Full January/February 2010 Issue

 

Say on Pay

Model Say on Pay Policy for Boards of Directors has been released by the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance.

CCGG website, January 19, 2010

 

Labour Outcomes by Country of Birth and Gender

The Toronto Immigrant Employment Data Initiative, York University (TIEDI ) has published its fourth analytical report. The report deals with the labour outcomes of immigrants according to their country of birth and gender.  According to the findings on average, immigrant men and women have lower annual earnings than their Canadian-born counterparts; immigrant men and women have higher unemployment rates than Canadian-born men and women.

TIEDI Reports: all four reports are available at this website.

 

Modern Employment Relationships

In a new working paper released by The Work Foundation, an overview of how the employee relationship is conceptualized in theory and in practice within organizations is discussed. The paper, titled Deal or no deal? An exploration of the modern employment relationship, contains a review of academic literature on the psychological contract, the central role that trust plays in maintaining the employment relationship, and practitioner-led employer writing on branding and segmentation.

Report, January 2010 (44 pages, PDF)

 

New ILO Employment protection legislation database

EPLex is a database on termination of employment regulation. It provides information on all the key topics that are regularly examined in national and comparative studies on employment termination legislation. The information is broken down to cover more than 50 variables, and will be updated annually to facilitate analysis of impacts and trends over time. EPLex replaces the ILO's existing Digest on Termination of Employment Legislation.

International Labour Organization, Industrial and Employment Relations Department, Employment protection legislation database - EPLex

 

Book of the Week

Retirement policy issues in Canada / edited by Michael G. Abbott Kingston, Ont. : Queen's University. John Deutsch Institute for the Study of Economic Policy, 2009. ISBN 978-1-55339-161-6 (pbk.)

After fifteen years of economic expansion, Canada is now experiencing shortages of skilled workers in a number of areas - a mere hint of what's to come, given the eight-million plus baby boomers who will be retiring from the Canadian labour force over the next fifteen years or so. 

This on-coming wave of retirements will have major implications for the economic well-being of both the retirees - particularly since people are living longer after retirement - and the Canadian economy at large. In Retirement Policy Issues in Canada, contributors look at Canada’s changing retirement landscape in broad terms. Chapters cover such topics as the direction of pension regulation in Canada, Canadian retirement patterns, retirement income replacement rates, challenges and policy options for an aging workforce, retirement incentives in defined benefit public and private pensions in Canada, key design features of defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans, recent legal and regulatory changes in pension plan design in Canada, options for older workers following job loss, management of longevity risks, sustainability of the Canada Pension Plan, mandatory retirement and private plan incentives, and the retirement prospects of immigrants.

About the Editors: Michael G. Abbott, Charles M. Beach, Robin W. Boadway, and James G. MacKinnon are all professors of economics, Queen's University. Charles M. Beach is director of the John Deutsch Institute, Queen's University.

Contributors include Robin Boadway (Queen's), Stephen Bonnar (Towers Perrin), John Burbidge (Waterloo), Robert Clark (North Carolina State), Katherine Cuff (McMaster), Richard Disney (Nottingham), David Dodge (Bank of Canada), Peter Drake (Fidelity Investments), Rick Egelton (CPP Investment Board), Maxime Fougère, (HRSDC), Barbara Glover (HRSDC), Raphael Gomez (Toronto), Morley Gunderson (Toronto), Sterling Gunn (CPP Investment Board) Cliff Halliwell (HRSDC), Malcolm Hamilton (Mercer), Derek Hum (Manitoba), Laurence Kotlikoff (Boston University), Dave McLellan (Fidelity Investments), Kevin Milligan (UBC), John Myles (Toronto), Christine Neill (Wilfrid Laurier), Garnett Picot (Statistics Canada), Graham Pugh (OMERS), William Robson (C.D. Howe), Bill Scarth (McMaster), Tammy Schirle (Wilfrid Laurier), Wayne Simpson (Manitoba), Marcel Théroux (Mercer), Michael Veall (McMaster), Casey Warman (Queen’s), and Chris Worswick (Carleton).

Visit our Recent Books blog for the CIRHR Library's latest additions!

 

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