Analyzing Canada’s Welfare State One of the most important things in our lives today is Canada’s welfare state, as it transformed Canada’s economy after the economy’s downturn from the Great Depression. The democratic system was formed to maintain prosperity, solidity and security in our everyday lives. One of the key pillars of the nation’s welfare state is employment insurance (EI). Through this analysis of Canada’s employment insurance, I will elucidate why I believe that this program should continue, but with refinements, as it has benefited a large portion of unemployed Canadians over the years and should continue doing so to fulfill the countries goals of the welfare state. The Government of Canada runs employment insurance, which …show more content…
1, from 2010 to 2014, the number of people who receive employment insurance beneficiaries has been in decline, falling from around 700 thousand people to as low as almost 500 thousand, which corresponds to the decline in unemployment rate in fig. 2. However, the rate of EI beneficiaries is decreasing more intensely than the unemployment rates, which suggests that there are more unemployed workers who don’t receive EI as each year passes. Moreover, the EI beneficiaries have been slowly increasing for the past year, which can possibly be due to the higher unemployment rates from recent oil prices dropping in Alberta and other outside …show more content…
3. "Unemployed? Good Luck Getting EI as Eligibility Hits All-time Low | Press Progress." Press Progress. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2016. . In 2012, the government paid out almost $160 million in fake EI claims, which increased 25% from the previous year. In addition to the misuse of EI, the government offers more benefits each year. (See fig. 4) Fig. 3 "Current Publications: Employment and Labour." : The Employment Insurance Program in Canada: How It Works. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2016. From the table, it is clear that the insurable earnings each year has increased over the past years, which may seem like an advantage. Although the earnings are increasing, the workers who receive the benefits are not always the ones that need it. This is because Canada’s EI eligibility for each location is not treated equally. For example, the workers in seasonal industries, mainly in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, and other rural areas generally qualify for EI. On the other hand, most workers in Ontario will not qualify for EI, regardless of losing their jobs (See fig. 4). Fig. 4 "Alberta Men Have Higher Unemployment than Canadian Average for the First Time since
In David Langille’s Follow the Money: How Business and Politics Define Our Health, Langille clearly outlines the history of the welfare state in Canada with regards to the development, the dissimilarities with the United States and the deliverance of democracy. Historically, the welfare state originates after the Industrial Revolution, maintaining tensions between the democratic government and the capitalist marketplace. The adoption of a welfare state grant foundations for business, assures funding, and implements bailouts and subsidies. According to the text the welfare state also raises qualifications and decreases expectations in the labor force. The welfare state in Canada differs vastly from the United States. For example, the United
In this person’s article, he/she discusses some of the hardships which many immigrants, may face in Canada. This person talks about how they at first had utopic dreams about Canada: that Canada did not have any “human weaknesses” and that they would find a job and be happy, free from racial discrimination. However, in the viewpoint of the author, this is far from the reality. The author warns about the difficulties of finding a job in Canada: difficulty in communication between the immigrant and the job supplier, lack of trust with the immigrants history in their home country, the fact that many of the jobs are not advertised in places where people can access them, and racism in choosing which person should get the job. Because of this sources personal experience, he/she warns others not to come to Canada. This is the reason that this source was created is to warn other people from facing the same dangers the author did in Canada. This author ends his/her article by saying that “work” is not something you can depend on to find in Canada. The main economic issue regarding immigration that this source addresses is that it is often very hard for newly landed immigrants to get jobs for many reasons. This is a very important problem as the main reason that the immigrants are let into Canada in the first place is to find a job and help Canada's economy.
Canada’s high unemployment rate combined with the number of job vacancies advocates a problem, and it’s possible that the jobs offered aren’t enticing enough for Canadians, for reasons such as wage or health and safety.
400, 000 jobs were lost across the country as every single sector, such as retail, manufacturing, transportation, natural resources, construction and warehousing trade had either lost profits or drastically cut employee wages. This had numerous effects since apart from increasing the unemployment rate to an all-time high, the Canadian Economic Observor reported that households all over Canada lost more than 8% of their net income and incurred about 2% of debit. Also, many obstacles arose for those attempting to get out of the financial crisis which got stronger by each passing month, such as how countless employees were not able to collect their worker benefits and pensions had been cut. With the development of new issues in the wake of the financial collapse, Canadians had looked toward the government for solutions, but had no success. Along with the federal government denying that Canada was in a recession for the majority of it, Stephen Harper proposed that Canadians should invest in the stock market even though it was facing historic lows and was slow in taking action to strengthen Canada’s economy.
After the confederation, Canada went through numerous progressions; some were positively effective but some were negatively influenced the working-class citizens. Every people in different societal strata have its own way of surviving. Paige Railbmon explains the Aboriginal people’s lives, Bettina Bradbury describes non-wage based workers’ surviving strategies, and Craig Heron introduces the union labors’ lives. In this paper, I analyzed my assessment of these three articles and some evoked questions.
The Canadian Assistance Plan has been a great asset towards financial support regarding low-income and unemployed Canadians. Poverty in countries has always been a struggle to prevent, but with the unemployment act which is part of the Canadian assistance Plan, lives were changing for the better. According to Statistical Report on the Health of Canadians by the Government of Canada, between March 1971 and March 1974, the unemployment dropped from 7.0% to 5.8%. Evidently, the Canadian Assistance Plan has decreased unemployment rates. The fact that a positive change occurred within three years goes to show how efficient The Canadian Assistance plan was. This further improves the security of Canadians as financial support became available to all unemployed canadians which left an opportunity to look for
There are many factors impacting work and learning specifically in Canada. How workers are involved or participate can affect outcomes for the employee and employer. Social and economic are two factors that influence education, learning, training and work. In this essay, I will provide examples of why social and economic context must be considered when understanding work and learning. I will also examine assumptions frequently made by Human Resources Management (HRM) and their perspective on the purpose and outcomes of learning and the critiques that challenge these perspectives.
Canada’s birth rates are below replacement levels and its population is aging, causing a significant drop in labour force growth over the long term. By 2030, nearly one out of every four Canadians will be 65 years or older. Moreover,
Furthermore the high income inequality is not the only issue Canadian families are facing, with enormous cutbacks from the government, Canadians are facing a lot more precarious times. The government has been reducing the economic security and access to public and social services has also been undermined many of the statutory benefits people use to enjoy in the past. Part of this problem with has to do with the employers and media idea of “flexibility”. Employers and the media often claim that the "flexibility" provided by precarious employment offers workers improved work-family balance and other lifestyle benefits. The reality, however, is that 1/3 of adult women who work part-time said they would prefer to work full-time, and this proportion
This book is written from an economic perspective by three economic professors emeritus at Queen’s university. The purpose of the book is to inform readers of political science, public policy, governmental agency, and immigration studies about the changes in immigration policies. It also gives some ideas on how to improve policies geared specifically towards the skilled worker’s immigration category. According to the authors, it acts as a statistic reference for professors and researchers. It is likewise a great source for people that are interested in social studies. In this book, authors discuss mainly the development of Canadian Immigration policy, the history of this complicated immigration process and some major changes
Besides a relatively non-competitive business environment, Canada?s labour force also lacks the competitive mindset. Structural employment remains high, which is partly due to the existence of social assistance and unemployment insurance systems. Work incentives are low under the protection of the employment insurance program, which indirectly contributes in a higher than the desirable unemployment rate. Furthermore, unions and other similar groups do not promote many incentives for workers to stay competitive in the workplace by continuously learning and improving productivity. Countries that have been most successful in cutting unemployment are those that have improved
This article comprehensively analyzes how the Canadian government aimed to accomplish different policy objectives in order to make immigration processes simpler: “These programs generally increase the participation by the provincial governments and employers in the selection of immigrants; increase the use of temporary foreign workers, and give the federal government more authority to control the flow of immigrants of particular types.” . The Canadian government implements new programs in order to make the selection of immigrants much more efficient. The Canadian government states specifically how their future programs will increase the participation of various governments and employers in selecting immigrants. Secondly, the article describes how the difficulty of applying for immigration status has increased over the years due to Canada’s government regulations: There is a wide variety of criteria for the selection of economic immigrants. For example, the PN program has up to 60 streams in which an immigrant can apply, each with different criteria. There are many streams to which an immigrant can apply, meaning that these government agencies that aim to accept certain immigrants are all based on various criteria. They do not aim to accept all immigrants that apply for immigration, but
Canada is regarded as one of the wealthiest industrialized countries in the world. This indication is contrary to the well-being reality affecting Canadians. Despite being part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD), Canada has lagged behind her otherwise wealthy counterparts in the industrialized countries being position 19 out of 22 nations (Breznitz and Zysman, 2013). This has been attributed to the precarious levels of poverty in a majority of Canadian households. The country has not recognized any official poverty measurement although other universal measures such as LICO is used for measuring relative poverty, a more determinable measure of poverty for wealthy countries.
Trends in Canadian Unemployment It seems that all the young adults are going to school and can not find a job in their field, or a job at all. Unemployment is something that occurs to a person who is actively looking for a form of employment but yet can not find it. The unemployment rate in Canada means that the economy isn’t booming like other countries or like the previous years in Canada.
One of the most pressing issues faced by Canada today is unemployment. In fact, reports confirm that the jobless rate continues to increase every year. As of February this year, the unemployment rate was at 7.0%. The presence of unemployment rate is evident in various provinces. In Quebec, the number of people working declined by 26,000 in February. Alternately, the number of employed in British Columbia fell by 10,000; while Saskatchewan nearly 6,000 individuals are unable to find jobs. The Conference Board of Canada projected that the country’s labour woes could reach to more than one million workers by 2020. In addition to this, experts predict that the unemployment rate in this country will surpass that of the United States. Along with the dismal figures and projections, the problem of unemployment consequently creates numerous negative consequences on the nation’s economy, its government, and of course its people. Some of the known effects of unemployment include reduced spending power, an increase in financial cost, recession, and even crimes and violence. Individually, long-term unemployment may result to depression, loss of self-respect, and strained relationships with family and friends – ultimately causing damage to the person’s overall well-being. The adverse effects of unemployment only show that this issue imposes a significant cost both on a national and individual level. As such, it is of primary importance to create an immediate plan of action to alleviate