Archive for the ‘Economy/Employment’ Category
The sheer gall of Stellantis’ caving to Trump shows Canada’s industrial economy is on the line. Here’s how we fight back
Sunday, October 19th, 2025
It’s no coincidence these 232 tariffs are aimed at every one of Canada’s high-tech success stories: auto, trucks, steel and other basic metals, soon to be joined by aerospace, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, industrial machinery and more… we must at all costs defend the successful high-tech industries we have — every one of which is now in Trump’s crosshairs.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, standard of living
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Canada needs a sovereign wealth fund
Tuesday, October 7th, 2025
This fund must operate as an investor – not a grant dispenser. It should back Canadian-owned businesses through direct investments, co-investments and fund commitments, in a way that attracts private capital rather than crowds it out… This is not about picking corporate winners. It’s about ensuring that industries essential to sovereignty remain anchored in Canada.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction
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We’ve arrived at arguably the best moment to invest in affordable housing in over a generation. Will we seize it?
Wednesday, October 1st, 2025
… while we’re going to spend over $100 billion a year on defence outlays to meet our Trump-dictated NATO obligations, Canadians continue to place housing at the top of the list of their worst cost-of-living headaches. Those steep monthly rents, it’s worth saying, represent dollars not spent on all sorts of goods and services provided by Canadians, from food to entertainment to travel to education.
Tags: economy, housing, standard of living
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A solution to Canada’s housing crisis has already been built — we just need to use it
Thursday, September 25th, 2025
While some new construction will be necessary why not use Canada’s vast and underutilized existing building stock? The scale of this untapped resource is staggering. According to a 2021 study, 8.7 per cent of homes — 1.34 million units — sit vacant across the country… Beyond these empty homes… over 100,000 short-term rental units could become long-term dwellings with proper regulation. This would not just address supply, it would make things more affordable…
Tags: budget, economy, housing, jurisdiction
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OPSEU/SEFPO sounds alarm on accelerated agenda to gut public education through Ford’s $2.5 billion unaccountable spending spree via the Skills Development Fund
Friday, September 19th, 2025
… if our public college system hemorrhaging jobs while shutting down hundreds upon hundreds of programs, then where are our public dollars going? The answer… is a government-led agenda to systematically defund Ontario colleges, while committing $2.5 billion in public dollars since 2020 to Ontario’s “Skills Development Fund,” a provincial funding envelope designed to cultivate non-college training programs.
Tags: budget, economy, Education, privatization
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Immigration Policy Still in Need of a Course Correction
Tuesday, September 16th, 2025
Immigration policy should raise average human capital, rather than focusing narrowly on filling short-term labour market gaps… or meeting non-economic objectives… Policy should also be transparent, predictable, and oriented toward long-term prosperity, ensuring that economic immigrants have strong skills, earnings potential, and integration prospects.
Tags: economy, immigration, standard of living
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Yes, Canada should (mostly) end our temporary foreign worker programs
Wednesday, September 10th, 2025
Make it easy for businesses to recruit from overseas for the most highly skilled and highly paid positions. Make it impossible to bring in temporary workers from overseas for low-wage and low-skill work… hundreds of thousands of temporary foreign workers to make pizzas, stock shelves or deliver food orders? At a time of rising unemployment and near-record youth unemployment, it makes less sense than ever.
Tags: economy, globalization, immigration, youth
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Why a bad deal on tariffs with Donald Trump is worse than no deal
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025
… trying to portray a deal with continued tariffs as some kind of “victory” for Canada, because the stated tariff may seem lower than other countries, is dangerously wishful… It would unilaterally disarm Canada’s ability to respond to U.S. actions with counter-tariffs or nontariff measures. It would cement U.S. tariffs as a “new normal” — and thus unleash a flood of capital away from Canada… It would sabotage nascent efforts with other countries to build a co-ordinated global response to Trump, by surrendering before a united front can take shape.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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A shrinking population is hardly what this country needs right now
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025
Are wages stagnant? Are houses overpriced? Is the health care system overburdened? It must be because of all those pesky people: the “overpopulation” and “crowding”… [But] Population growth has already slowed to a trickle… The problem… is not that we have too many people: it is that we have too little capital, and too little incentive to make efficient use of the capital we have. Fixing those ought to be our priority
Tags: economy, Health, housing, ideology, standard of living
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Eliminating interprovincial trade barriers would add 30K annual housing starts: CMHC
Thursday, July 17th, 2025
A new analysis by the national housing agency estimates Canada could add 30,000 more housing starts annually by eliminating interprovincial trade barriers… that prevent the movement of either resources or labour in the residential construction industry… The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has estimated that existing internal trade hurdles cost the economy some $200 billion a year.
Tags: economy, housing, jurisdiction, standard of living
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