Questions?
Comments? E-mail Robert T. Chisholm, Associate Member OSPE, at attention_to_the_facts@hotmail.com
A1.2. MORE ABOUT OTTAWA’S HIGH
TECH UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM
A1.2 (B) CLAUDE HAW, PRESIDENT OF THE FORMER O.C.R.I.
As an example of earlier misunderstandings of the problem, a Mr. Chisholm
reports as follows on the conversations that he had at a book launch event in
September 2009, with Terry Matthews and Claude Haw, in a posting on Tuesday
November 9th 2009 submitted to an old Ottawa Business Journal online
discussion board titled “TERRY MATTHEWS
BAGGAGE COMMENT” to which their Editor Peter
Kovessy also contributed.
Among other things, Chisholm explained to Terry Matthews what he
believed underlay Terry Matthews’ view expressed in an interview with CTV News
on August 28th 2008, titled "Tech entrepreneur's forecast for Ottawa is
bleak". In that interview, Mr. Matthews expressed the view that government
was ignoring Ottawa's high tech industries. Mr. Chisholm explained this to
Terry Matthews as follows:-
“I explained
to Terry that I thought I had found out why this was happening - namely,
because of the government's unsatisfactory system for reporting upon and
analyzing the unemployment numbers. I mentioned the Statistics Canada report of
March 2006, "Work Hours Instability in Canada" and also the
"Ottawa's Hidden Workforce" report of Fall 1998; these are examples
of important but very rare reports which were being forgotten and ignored in a
very short time following their release."
Mr. Chisholm reports as follows on his conversation with Claude Haw and
recalls mentioning to him the Statistics Canada report of March 2006,
"Work Hours Instability in Canada" and also the "Ottawa's Hidden
Workforce" report of Fall 1998 referred to elsewhere:-
"In my one-on-one conversation with Claude Haw - before the
speakers took the podium - I mentioned the issue of information and analyses
necessary to marketing / showcasing the services of Ottawa companies - versus the type of information and
analyses necessary to understanding the performance of the economy, which is
quite different.
If I recall correctly I mentioned to him the two examples already
referred to, concerning certain important but rare reports which were
effectively being ignored soon after being released. Claude Haw gave me his own
vision of Ottawa's unemployment problem - which was, in effect, that it is
"solved". He based this conclusion on several facts, namely:-
1.
Unemployment
in Windsor, Ontario, was currently running at 20% (this, remember, is a major
auto manufacturing centre).
2. U.S.
unemployment was currently running at 10%
3. Ottawa's unemployment was currently running at 5%
Based on this, Claude Haw considered that Ottawa didn't have a
significant problem.
Points (2) and (3) were borne out by an Ottawa Citizen article,
"Unemployment edges up in capital", on Saturday November 7th 2009 -
just a few days ago. (10.2% for the U.S., 5.4% for Ottawa-Gatineau).
From this article, it was also “clear” that Ottawa is doing much better
than the average for Canada.
As a result, Mr. Haw clearly was not aware of the true size and
character of Ottawa's problem, or for that matter the problem in Canada as a
whole. Apart from other things, he seemed not to be aware of past and extremely
serious problems caused by mis-reporting and wrong analyses based on the usual
ICT sector employment numbers coming from Stats Can and O.C.R.I. - as evidenced by the Stats Can "Life
After High Tech" report of July 20th 2007 and the Stats Can "Work
Hours Instability in Canada" report of March 2006.
He also seemed not to be aware of the July 13th 2006 "Ottawa
Citizen" article by Andrew Mayeda and James Bagnall, "Behind the
Numbers...", which explained most - though not all - of the important
points about how the Stats Can and O.C.R.I. employment numbers were being
wrongly used to imply in the past that Ottawa's high tech unemployment problem
was "solved" - when, in fact, this was actually not the case.
I also pointed out how the O.C.R.I. web site was indicating that
assistance to employers with re-training expenses, from government, was
available. Example: the Ontario Targeted Wage Subsidy program. Then I pointed
out how this in fact was not possible for most people out of work because of dysfunctional
government rules and regulations "behind the scenes" which were
causing most people out of work to be dis-barred from using the program. Claude
Haw was concerned that I was suggesting that the O.C.R.I. web site was giving
out wrong information, but I made it clear that the problem was the said
"government rules and regulations." Claude Haw also considered that
some restrictions on who could access retraining assistance were appropriate
and that people could do much or all of the re-skilling they need on their own.
He was also concerned about a big problem with some organizations,
representing themselves as helping people get jobs, when they were not in fact
doing so. I had told him earlier that I am connected with O.T.I. /Vitesse
Re-Skilling. Claude Haw did not refer to any specific examples of organizations
that he considered problematical; I said I would have to examine some specific
examples of what he's referring to in order to understand his point properly.
Clearly there is a need for someone to explain to Mr. Haw what is really
going on, and document it. We also need to "get to the bottom of" his
concerns about some organizations, representing themselves as helping people
get jobs, when they were not in fact doing so."
Claude Haw did not understand the problem, any more
than did Jeffrey Dale before him. It appears that Bruce Lazenby, head of the
re-tasked Invest Ottawa now (in 2014), doesn’t have a proper understanding of
the problem either.
At both federal government and provincial government
level, in general the size and character of the problem are still not
understood any more than they were back in late 2000, when the trouble all
started.
Questions? Comments? E-mail Robert T.
Chisholm, Associate Member OSPE, at attention_to_the_facts@hotmail.com
END OF PAGE