Before the pandemic, Fernanda Yanchapaxi already knew how difficult life could be without child care. The 39-year-old University of Toronto graduate student spent nearly three years on daycare waiting lists for each of her daughters, who are now seven and three. She schlepped them to her classes, tried to soothe them during lectures and pushed her studies late into the night. She managed as best she could, but it never felt sustainable.
Something is seriously out of whack with the global economy when hundreds of millions of people are thrown into unemployment and yet the billionaires who dominate the world of business are getting richer than ever.
Across the country, election authorities are making plans to hold mid-pandemic elections while keeping voters safe. But with two federal party leaders now self-isolating after being exposed to COVID-19, just how safe might a campaign be for the politicians doing the campaigning?
Before the flip
Canada has just recorded the highest unemployment rate in its entire postwar history, so claims of a labour shortage seem far-fetched. The official unemployment rate is 13.7 per cent — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Statistics Canada’s broader measure of joblessness (called the “underutilization rate”) is 35 per cent.
In other words, more than one worker in three wants work but can’t find it. That’s as bad as the worst years of the 1930s. What’s in short supply is jobs, not workers.
The rising political and societal demand for a greener economy coupled with the restart of the economy post-COVID-19, offers an unprecedented opportunity for Canada to become a global centre of clean technology innovation.
While the Canadian government can use grants, subsidies, loans and donations to kick start the recovery, there is another proven strategy that has been used successfully in the past — flow-through shares.