A CALL FOR LONG-OVERDUE ACTION:
PERSPECTIVES
ON REPORTING OF, AND SOLUTIONS TO:-
THE CANADIAN UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM
PERFORMANCE OF THE ECONOMY, JOBS, RETRAINING
BUSINESS AND WORKPLACE ETHICS PROBLEMS.
By: Robert T. Chisholm Nov.
2014
Associate Member, Ontario Society of Professional
Engineers (O.S.P.E.)
Questions?
Comments? E-mail Robert T. Chisholm, Associate Member OSPE, at attention_to_the_facts@hotmail.com
With regard to official O.S.P.E. policies, information, plans,
procedures, actions and perspectives:-
GENERAL
INTRODUCTION
a) GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE SUBJECT MATTER INVOLVED
If we manage the economy properly, the potential for
improvement in its performance is much more than people in general think. This has
to be based on satisfactory jobs, which must also be sufficient in number, for
everybody wanting and/or needing to work.
The point is to ensure that there are sufficient and
adequate opportunities for them to function as factors of production – both in
terms of the economy in general and in terms of contributing to the tax base.
Adequate opportunities are partly dependent on
adequate access to retraining in new skill sets - where needed - in order to
transition to new lines of work.
The aforementioned will happen only if we pay proper
attention to the true size and character of the challenge, and stop the
mis-characterising of people out of work that has been going on for decades
(meaning, at least as far back as 1982).
Statistics Canada’s methods of collecting, analysing
and reporting on the relevant information have not kept pace with the needs of
the times, which have been partly characterised by big increases in the
incidence of casual work, short term contracts and under-employment, at the expense
of full time jobs commensurate with people’s professional qualifications and
experience. Over the years, since at least as far back as 1982, the effects of
this have been aggravated by increasingly long spells of unemployment between
contracts.
In addition to this, there have been some serious
instances of mis-information from other sources making it appear that certain
localised unemployment and under-employment problems had been largely or
completely solved when this was actually not the case. As an example, we refer
later to Ottawa’s high tech unemployment problem from early 2001 onwards.
There are additional long-standing problem areas
concerning cover-ups of corruption in business and Canada’s treatment of
“whistleblowers” who expose or try to expose corporate wrongdoing. These have
been and are continually aggravated by the availability of essentially
unlimited money to the corporate wrongdoers referred to, for the purpose of
feeding lawyers and government bureaucrats to keep the wrongdoing going –
involving wrongful dismissals, harassment in the workplace, and blackballing
people from working, etc. if they complain about these kinds of treatment. The
other dimension to this is imagined or actual threats against the mass media of
SLAPP-type lawsuits alleging “libel”, also aided by money from the wrongdoers -
in order to prevent the Canadian public, government, and wrongdoers’
competitors in the business community from discovering anything. This has been
and is further aided and abetted by ill-informed but popular social prejudices
on the part of everybody, and mainstream news editors in particular.
Finally, there are serious problems in Canada with
generalized defeatism and defeatist attitudes, caused in part by the operation
of certain federal and provincial government-controlled administrative justice
tribunals. They have continually made bad decisions which have negatively
affected people’s lives based partly on refusal to use any common sense.
This website deals in depth with the definition of
some big problem areas and related information, and policy change
recommendations to address them.
Since at least as far back as 1982, there have been
some ongoing and extremely serious problems involving popular disinformation or
misinformation provided to politicians, law makers and voters alike - resulting
in seriously mis-guided voter opinions, mis-guided social customs and
mis-guided public policies. The following subject areas are dealt with:-
1 – JOBS, THE ECONOMY, RETRAINING AND
UNEMPLOYMENT.
- 10 main sub-sections,
2 – CORRUPTION IN BUSINESS AND
TREATMENT OF WHISTLEBLOWERS.
- 1 sub-section
3 – ATTITUDES IN GENERAL
2 sub-sections
(b) APPLICABILITY OF THE INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE
The main emphasis in this website is on the National
Capital Region (NCR) but there are important and unavoidable lessons for the
whole of Ontario and all of Canada. This applies to the supporting
documentation as well as the analysis presented.
In all cases, reasons are given for why such
documentation and analysis must be considered important. In some cases, the
reasons will be self-evident.
(c) CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
The section numbers 1,2 and 3 below correspond
to those used at the end of section (a) above. Sections 1,2 and 3, in turn, are
organised into sub-sections as shown below.
Questions?
Comments? E-mail Robert T. Chisholm, Associate Member OSPE, at attention_to_the_facts@hotmail.com
1 – JOBS, THE ECONOMY, RETRAINING AND UNEMPLOYMENT.
This has 10 main sub-sections A1.1 to
A1.10, as follows:-
A1.1.
UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT: NEED FOR BETTER INFORMATION, ANALYSIS AND
REPORTING.
A1.2. MORE
ABOUT OTTAWA’S HIGH TECH UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM.
This has 3
subsections, as follows:-
A1.2 (A)
GENERAL.
A1.2 (B) CLAUDE HAW, PRESIDENT OF THE FORMER O.C.R.I.
A1.2 (C) MORE ON THE JOB HUNTER’S CONUNDRUM.
A1.3. MORE CONCERNING THE PUBLIC MIS-REPORTING AND
OBFUSCATION ABOUT UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT.
A1.4
FOREIGN TRAINED PROFESSIONAL IMMIGRANTS TO CANADA; “PROMISES”; CONTRACT
OF EMPLOYMENT “FIDDLE”.
A1.5. ADDITIONAL INDICATIONS OF FLAWED APPROACH TO
DATE; SOME CAUSES OF THIS; SOME REFERENCES.
A1.6. IMPORTANT
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS LEFT UN-ANSWERED. SOME GENERAL
EFFECTS OF MIS-GUIDED IMMIGRATION POLICIES.
A1.7. WHAT IS THE SIZE OF IMPROVEMENT IN THE
PERFORMANCE OF THE CANADIAN ECONOMY TO AIM FOR, AND WHAT FORM MUST THIS TAKE?
HOW MANY NEW FULL TIME JOBS ARE INVOLVED?
A1.8
HOW DO WE AVOID STARTING A CONSUMER PANIC IF WE DISCUSS FRANKLY THE CHALLENGES
OF CANADA’S INEFFICIENT JOB MARKETS?
A1.9.
WHAT WILL BE THE BENEFITS TO CANADA FOR ACHIEVING FULL EMPLOYMENT?
A1.10. WHAT MUST WE DO IN ORDER TO GET TO FULL
EMPLOYMENT?
2 – CORRUPTION IN BUSINESS AND TREATMENT OF WHISTLEBLOWERS.
This has one subsection only:-
A2.1
PROPER LEGAL PROTECTION FOR “WHISTLE BLOWERS” WHO EXPOSE OR TRY TO
EXPOSE CORPORATE WRONGDOING.
This has 2 sub-sections:-
A3.1 DEFEATISM AND DEFEATIST ATTITUDES NOT
ACCEPTABLE.
A3.2 WHAT SHOULD WE BE TELLING THE AMERICANS
ABOUT HOW TO AVOID SPECULATION BASED ON “ENDLESSLY-ESCALATING” REAL ESTATE
VALUES?
Questions?
Comments? E-mail Robert T. Chisholm, Associate Member OSPE, at attention_to_the_facts@hotmail.com
The details of sections 1,2 and 3 and all the
sub-sections just referred to are summarised
HERE , along with recommendations
that are detailed to the extent possible.
4 – BRIEF SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
Section 1 - JOBS, THE ECONOMY, RETRAINING AND UNEMPLOYMENT –
leads to recommendations which can be summarized as follows:-
1.1 Economic development in
Canada must focus on creating satisfactory jobs and sufficient numbers of them,
relative to the numbers of people looking for jobs at any given time.
To provide the necessary
motivation for this, at all levels, with respect to unemployment and
underemployment: methods of collecting information, analyzing it and reporting
on it must be revised.
The practice of categorising
people with persistent trouble finding work, as “dropped out of the labour
force” or “given up looking for work” must cease, with particular reference to
information given to the mass media. It should be a simple matter to
immediately change the descriptions used away from the present ones - which are
both pejorative and un-qualified.
The practice of emphasizing
the so-called “official” unemployed as the main problem area must cease.
Employable social assistance
recipients must also be counted amongst those either needing work or wanting
work. Those not getting provincial social assistance but out of work and
wanting work must also be counted amongst those either needing or wanting work.
Under-employment must be
highlighted as a major problem area and realistic assessments issued regularly
concerning the numbers of satisfactory full time jobs needed to eliminate its
major effects.
Everybody would like more
money. But even so, major improvements in measuring and reporting on
under-employment are possible.
There must be a system set
up for ongoing consultation between Statistics Canada and the general public,
those affected by joblessness and underemployment and those concerned to assist
them, concerning the foregoing.
In the medium to long term,
a better system for producing regular and realistic appraisals of the numbers
of new jobs needed to eliminate unemployment and under-employment must be
implemented.
1.2. The federal E.I. system
and provincial social assistance programs must focus exclusively on assisting
people out of work to the extent necessary to convert them back into taxpayers.
This must include adequate financial support while out of work and revised
rules governing access to any government-funded retraining necessary to
obtaining gainful employment. The current set of rules does not work. There
must be a system set up for ongoing consultation between the federal H.R.S.D.C.,
provincial governments and those affected by joblessness and underemployment,
and those concerned to assist them, concerning the foregoing.
As an example of how the
current rules do not work, there is a website about someone enticed from the
U.K. in 1982 to work in Canada by the largest consulting engineering firm in
the country, apparently based on a permanent job to last at least 24 months but
who was laid off after just 16 weeks. Then he was refused unemployment
insurance benefits based on “lack of insurable weeks” and the 20-week rule then
applying to “new entrants to the Canadian labour force”. Later, he had a string
of problems related to refusal of retraining assistance partly related to “lack
of insurable weeks” of employment, with these refusals being caused by bad
decisions on the part of the federal Board of Referees
and the Office
of the Umpire and all
caused by a combination of blind obedience to the ”letter of the law” coupled
with a refusal to use any common sense based on the facts. This was further
compounded by Ontario’s
Social Benefits Tribunal
refusing to overturn an alleged social benefits “overpayment” assessment
against him based on the facts of a peculiar combination of personal
circumstances partly involving a rental property running at a loss and which
had also suffered a large drop in market value following a real estate slump in
Montreal between 1988 and 2000. The problems just referred to, involving some bad decisions by certain
government-controlled administrative justice tribunals, constitute examples of a much wider set of
problems involving such tribunals described in the new book released for sale
on April 15th 2014, “Unjust by Design”, by lawyer Ron Ellis.
1.3. Job offers made to
foreign-trained professionals, for the purpose of enticing them to emigrate to
Canada from their countries of origin, must mean what they say. As a minimum,
the duration of any such “permanent”
jobs offered must equal the period necessary for such foreign-trained
professionals to acquire professional licensing in Canada. In such cases, the
employers must provide contracts of employment that are legally binding to that
effect under Canadian law. Alternatively, the persons to be recruited must be
explicitly told from the outset that they will be needed only for a short-term
contract under the Temporary Foreign Worker program and must return to their
countries of origin on completion of their contracts. Another option would be
to offer such foreign–trained professionals admission to Canada as Temporary
Foreign Workers but give them the option to transfer later on to Landed
Immigrant Status if things work out well between them and the employer and if
there is no sign of any massive economic downturn “conveniently” waiting to
make trouble at precisely the wrong time.
1.4. Voters, politicians and
law makers alike must be told the truth about Canada’s currently-inefficient
job markets. This can be done without causing a consumer panic, given the
correct approach.
1.5. Public attitudes towards
people out of work must be changed through public education about the realities
concerning the conditions required for job seekers’ efforts to be successful.
There must be universal proper education about the challenges of finding work,
including the bank balance trend optimization problem that constitutes part of
it. Traditional criticisms directed at people out of work or underemployed
(particularly those in this situation for the “long-term”) must be publicly
denounced as un-sustainable, incompetent and having no basis in fact.
Section 2 – CORRUPTION IN BUSINESS AND TREATMENT OF
WHISTLEBLOWERS.
This partly concerns a
poorly-handled recruitment by Canada’s largest consulting engineering company,
involving someone recruited from his home country – the U.K. – while working
there as a professional engineer but who was then laid off after a short time
and thereafter constantly prevented from carrying on any meaningful career in
Canada.
It also deals with the wider
general problems of mis-treatment of “whistleblowers” who report corporate
wrongdoing in Canada.
The obvious recommendations
arising from this include :-
2.1. Properly written and
properly executed and supervised Contracts of Employment for foreign-trained
professional immigrants recruited to work in Canada by Canadian companies (as
already noted above, under Section 1).
2.2. Proper legal protection
for “whistleblowers” who report corporate wrongdoing, both in government and
private industry. Note that some work on this is already in progress at a
provincial level, as in the case of O.S.P.E.’s work on behalf of Professional
Engineers in Ontario.
Section 3 – ATTITUDES IN GENERAL
Voters, politicians and law
makers alike need a reminder about Stephen Harper’s speech in May 2002, reported
as a front-page headline article in the National Post of May 30th
2002. The headline was,
“Harper
Calls Canada a Nation of Defeatists”.
An obvious conclusion is
that changes in the areas noted in sections 1 and 2 above are mandatory in order to stop the defeatism and defeatist
attitudes in Canada that current (2014) Prime Minister Stephen Harper himself
disapproves of.
Another obvious conclusion is that you
cannot rely just on stimulating the housing market to stimulate the economy as
a whole. Stimulating the housing market will help to create jobs only in the
industries that cater to it, in the domestic economy, but will do nothing for
stimulating the exports on which all trading nations – including Canada -
depend.
GENERAL REMINDER
The recommendations arising from the contents of
sections 1,2 and 3 and all the sub-sections, referred to above, are summarised
in more detail HERE, along with references to in-depth information.
Questions?
Comments? E-mail Robert T. Chisholm, Associate Member OSPE, at attention_to_the_facts@hotmail.com
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