Search

This article explores two policy pathways – parental leave and flexible work –as complementary policy interventions aimed at promoting gender equality in unpaid care and household work. Drawing on Canadian data from the 2021 International Familydemic Survey, we examine the relationship between fathers' previous use of parental leave, and current use of flexible work arrangements (flextime and remote work), and their involvement in unpaid care work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings support the following three arguments: First, in numerous countries, including Canada, where socially exclusive policy designs can limit fathers' take up of parental leave, flexible work arrangements can provide additional opportunities to increase fathering involvement beyond the early months of parenting. Second, our data indicate that unpaid care work sharing is enhanced by fathers' parental leaves and flexible working; however, fathers who have taken parental leave report dividing a wider set of household work and care tasks with their partners. Third, although their policy designs, aims, and legislation architectures differ in Canada, we maintain that parental leaves and flexible work arrangements are both more than employment policies; they are care/work policies that enact 'social care' and 'democratic care', and support gender equality and work-family justice goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a series of papers from a conference at Employment and Social Development Canada, that compares US and Canadian labor markets and social policy issues. Topics discussed include the paper covering the five broad themes of social programs, immigration, unemployement, local labor markets and human capital.

We examine data from Australia, Canada, and the United States to assess the potential for immigrant screening policies to influence the labor market performance of skilled immigrants. Our estimates point to improvements in employment rates and weekly earnings of male university-educated immigrants in all three countries concomitant with policy reforms. Nonetheless, the gains are modest in comparison to a substantial and persistent performance advantage of US skilled immigrants. Given that there is increasingly little to distinguish the screening policies of these countries, we interpret the US advantage as primarily reflecting the relative positive self-selectivity of US immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education is the property of Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ontario Works is a provincial income assistance programme of last resort, operating under a workfare policy structure. Based on interviews with clients and staff (case managers, supervisors, managers and administrators), as well as an examination of policy directives, this article explores the work of workfare including claims making, training and resocialization, and employment internships. This article asks particularly how the work of workfare and the complex and costly workfare infrastructure is justified in the face of its failure to lead to employment. Findings include a contrast between the official story of an employment-focused programme and workers' reports of spending far more time on eligibility than employment readiness. In addition, applying Gramsci's notion of 'common sense', an argument is developed that the normative justification for workfare is based not on the effectiveness of workfare programmes, but on the belief that clients need to exchange their work for welfare and self-improvement so that they appear 'employment ready' even if not employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on interview and focus group data, this article explores research undertaken as part of a larger research project exploring precarity in the nonprofit employment services sector in a mid-sized Canadian city. We critically survey major legislative changes to Canadian employment and income security policies and programs, including the restructuring of work and labor relations, growth of performance-based contracting-out, erosion of intergovernmental transfers, worker stress, and emotional tolls. Our study's results demonstrate how employment precarity in the nonprofit employment services sector is amplified by top-down and centralized relationships with funding partners and policymaking divorced from the employment experiences of frontline staff. We make the case that it is important to work against rising workplace precarity to strengthen organizational and workplace conditions, as well as build environments more supportive of optimal employment support services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employment equity initiatives - redressing past inequities or discrimination by promoting the hiring of members of underrepresented groups - are controversial and divisive. Although a national Gallup poll (1993) indicated 74 % of Canadians felt a person's qualifications should solely determine hiring decisions, many have little knowledge and understanding of the issue. Adopting a discourse analytic framework, this research explores employees' understandings and perceptions of an employment equity initiative in a mid-sized Canadian organization. Employment equity was seen as problematic and not well understood, and individuals eligible for employment equity initiatives were marginalized. This study contributes to identifying the misunderstandings and underlying sources of tensions with employment equity principles, legislation and administrative regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part-time employment growth in the United States and Canada followed similar trends between 1955 and 1975, which then diverged when part-time employment (as a percent of total employment) stopped growing in the United States but continued to expand in Canada. This divergence in trend in the latter part of the twentieth century is not adequately explained by labor supply demographics, labor demand factors, or union effects. To the contrary, differences in public policy played a pivotal role in allowing Canadian workers to continue to view the choice of shorter hours as attractive, while US workers faced higher costs when choosing part-time employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INCREASING DISCONTENT AMONG provincial employees in Alberta in the late 1960s and 1970s led to growing militancy culminating in a series of strike actions in 1974 by members of the Civil Service Association of Alberta (CSA OF A) and the transformation of that organization into the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees. In response to growing labour unrest in the public sector, the Lougheed government created a joint government/union task force with the CSA OF A on 11 February 1975 to review the legislation governing provincial employees and to recommend changes in legislation necessary to achieve a better system of labour relations. The creation of the task force created a period of labour peace in the provincial public sector leading up to the provincial election in the spring of 1975. However, following the re-election of the Lougheed government, public sector labour legislation was revised with the passage of the highly anti-union Public Service Employee Relations Act in May 1977. Internal government documents of the day suggest the task force process was a cynical manipulation of the union in an effort to defuse public employee militancy and to delay conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on the theoretical insights of Foucauldian governmentality scholarship to analyze a performance measurement system developed by the federal government in the 1990s to assess employment services for the unemployed. An examination of Human Resource Development Canada's Results-Based Accountability Framework yields insights into contestation and incoherence in performance measurement, often overlooked in governmentality research. This argument is developed by detailing three obstacles to implementing the performance measurement system: dilemmas of technical coordination, contestation by actors invested in different terms of measurement, and widespread recognition of the ambiguities of the performance data. The paper concludes by calling for more variegated accounts of governance in governmentality scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering a series of oil-driven economic booms, the use of inter-provincial and international migrant labour has become an important part of labour market policy in the Canadian province of Alberta. The increased use of temporary foreign workers is controversial. Narrative analysis of legislators' statements in the legislature and the press between 2000 and 2011 reveals the government using three narratives to justify policies encouraging greater use of foreign migrant workers: (1) labour shortages require migrant workers, (2) migrants do not threaten Canadian jobs and (3) migrants are not being exploited. Close scrutiny of each narrative demonstrates them to be largely invalid. This suggests a significant disconnect between the real and espoused reasons for the significant changes to labour market policy, changes that advantage employers and disadvantage both Canadian and foreign workers. The findings are relevant to understand the political dynamics of economically related migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the performance of Canada's employment policy governance regime post-1996 by explicitly comparing Canadian approaches to those used in the European Union ( EU) through the open method of coordination ( OMC). It concludes that Canada has moved so far along the decentralization continuum - with 13 provincial systems as well as a federal-only system in place - that coordination, coherence, mutual learning and information sharing on a pan- Canadian basis have been lost. While EU OMC approaches hold promise, to be realized stakeholders would need to become more engaged in the policy domain and provinces, rather than the federal government, must take the initiative for enhanced coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earnings and employment differences across categories of the immigrant selection system are explored with links to the points system. Additionally, alternative approaches to analysis are discussed with respect to their relevance for different policy questions. Appreciable outcome gaps across immigrant categories are observed, but with important differences in interpretation following from alternative approaches to specifying the sample and methodology for analysis. As expected, members of the economic class have superior earnings in the long run; however, employment in other immigration classes is sometimes comparable or higher. Notably, privately sponsored refugees have relatively good outcomes, particularly in the short run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces debates about federal employment equity policy in Canada in the 1980s and 1990s, focusing specifically on the role of data and statistics in policy-making. The authors interpret policy-makers' extensive use of evidence-based policy instruments in the implementation of employment equity as an attempt to offer a technical solution to the deeply politicized problem of workplace discrimination. By exploring policy debates from the Royal Commission on Equality in Employment (the Abella Commission) (1984) to the passage of the reformed Employment Equity Act in 1995, the authors show how recourse to evidence-based deliberation failed to contain political conflict, because the meaning and use of statistical data became the object of political struggle among the main policy stakeholders. The article concludes by considering the implications of this case study for the broader comparative debate on the role of evidence-based methods in policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, traditional approaches to social assistance (welfare) have increasingly been replaced with 'active' labour market policies. Alongside other industrialised countries, Canada embraced this shift, with its emphasis on the 'shortest route' to paid employment. There has been little research on the outcomes of these dramatic changes in Canada, especially longer term. This article explores the post-welfare labour market experiences of people who were on social assistance in Canada in 1996. It uses the longitudinal microdata files of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) from Statistics Canada, which tracks a panel of recipients over five years. We examine the mixing of work and welfare, the transition from welfare to work, and selected labour market indicators - primarily hours of work and wages - that those in receipt of social assistance face in assuming paid work. Those leaving welfare for work face precarious employment opportunities. Leavers earn lower wages, work fewer hours and consequently have lower annual earnings than nonrecipients. Over time the gap narrows but remains significant, even after six years. Returns to welfare are frequent. Overall, even after six years most social assistance recipients remained marginalised in the periphery of the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Industrial Relations / Relations Industrielles is the property of Universite Laval, Department of Industrial Relations and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Canada's efforts to strengthen its talent and skills supply for the knowledge economy have been undergoing various transformations over the past decade, largely driven by immigration policy, global trends, and new science and technology investments. This article reviews some of the more recent experiments centered on building a knowledge culture with an assessment of selected strengths, gaps, and weaknesses while providing a commentary on the broader global effort that is affecting the Canadian discourse. It offers some guidelines on how Canada will need to build on existing infrastructure and governance, suggests key instruments for engaging its knowledge workforce, and points to some current directions for a warmer future for Canadian talent and the science culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gazi University Journal of Economics & Administrative Sciences is the property of Gazi University Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the past decade, federal and provincial governments in Canada have made major modifications in the governance of workforce development policy, an area critical to economic prosperity. Governance shifts have been accomplished primarily through devolution from the federal government to the provinces (including the transfer of federal staff) via a variety of bilateral agreements. This article analyses the performance of the intergovernmental relations system in workforce development policy in Canada since 1996. While there has been remarkable success in producing results in the form of agreements, and workability on a bilateral basis has improved – thereby reducing federal-provincial tensions – this has not been accompanied by improved workability on a multilateral basis. In addition, the changes to the system introduced by devolution have not always been consistent with federal principles. The article concludes that, without a more robust multilateral inter-governmental process to bridge the two orders of government, workforce development policy in Canada will remain inadequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author discusses the paradoxes on the labor and employment in Canada. He comments on the issues which include labour empowerment, collective bargaining, and the court decisions on the freedom of association. The article also mentions the Labour Relations Act of 1995 in relation to this issue.

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Devolution of active labour market policy has been pursued by both the Canadian and UK governments during the past decade and, as a result, new intergovernmental relationships have developed. These are compared, focusing in particular on relationships between the Government of Canada and the Government of the province of Alberta, and the UK Government and the Scottish Executive. The analysis concludes that intergovernmental relations and the workability of the intergovernmental relations system in the two countries are fundamentally different. This is due to distinct features in the structure of the state (the constitution, the number of sub-state governments and the asymmetry between them, how finances are shared, and how power is divided), and in the governing structure for active labour market policy (the degree of decentralization, the power of central government to act, the involvement of actors external to government, and the operation of the intergovernmental machinery) in each country. It is also due to the continued presence in the UK, during the period of this research, of two powerful forces of intergovernmental accommodation not found in Canada—a unitary party system and unified civil service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To account for the formation of employment-welfare relationship, conventional studies often rely on the demand-side or the supply-side perspective. To explain the complete mechanism in the observed nexus, however, I argue that a political institution and its historical path need to be investigated. By examining youth employment policy, in Canada, this paper explores how the strategy of integrating social welfare policy with active labor market policy targeting youth ended up with potentials for unilateral action, both at the federal and provincial levels, how the subsequent centralizing force undermined the devolution efforts and the ensuing reform in accordance with neo-liberal framework in labor market policy, how political institutions in a federal state came to affect the phase of employment-welfare relationship, and ultimately why such a center-governed active labor market policy often falls short of realizing its intended objective of transforming the existing nexus between welfare state and production regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Industrial Relations / Relations Industrielles is the property of Universite Laval, Department of Industrial Relations and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article focuses on the lack of rights for unpaid workers in Canada. The article discusses the lack of legislation to provide legal rights to people providing care for family members, friends and neighbors, presents policies that discriminate against the unpaid worker, and questions the lack of access to fundamental human rights.

Explores the relations between child care, active labor market policies and women's labor market participation in Canada. Economic grounds for governments to provide greater financial support to cover parents' costs for child-care services; Paucity of federal, provincial, territorial and employer funding support for child care; Proposals that would expand child care's positive labor market effects.

Redesigns employment equity in Canada in terms of 'achieving an integrated workplace' instead of 'hiring and promotion of the members of the target groups.' Economic importance of female occupation; Case study of policy implementation in University of Saskatchewan; Benefits of reducing men in employment equity programs; Limitations of efforts to achieve gender neutrality in the workplace.

Emphasizes the need for sound Canadian manpower policies to prevent the threat of brain drain to the United States. Economic costs of brain drain; Explanation of the migration of individuals; Advantages of Canada over the U.S.; Need for policies that will raise the growth of employment, productivity and real wages.

Discusses efforts to reform labor market decision making in British Columbia during the 1990s. Increased role of the private sector in developing and administering education and training programs; Fostering of cooperation among public- and private-sector actors in the labor market field in associational arrangements.

Examines implications of heterogeneity of preferences for the optimality of workfare in Canada. Effect of government imposition of alternative cardinalizations on individual utilities and distribution of incomes; Role of the government on the welfare of individuals; Need for investigation on the differences among potential welfare recipients.

The article discusses several aspects of the political career of Sir John Alexander Macdonald, an immigrant from Scotland and a Canadian lawyer and former Prime Minister. His unification of Upper and Lower Canada as Prime Minister in 1841 is mentioned. Additional topics discussed include his costly transcontinental railroad project, his employment policy after being reelected as Prime Minister in 1878, his decision to assimilate First Nations to European culture through education, and his abuse of alcohol.

Analyzes the employment of North American Indian workers in Alberta, Canada during the 1950s and 1960s. Overview of the sugar-beet industry in southern Alberta; Discussion of Canadian employment policies and agencies, including manpower committees and the Indian Affairs Branch of the national government; Description of migrant labor policies as coercive and paternalistic; Details of public welfare programs for North American Indian workers.

Examines the effort to launch a concerted deliberative labor market policy in Quebec. Resistance of officials and politicians eager to protect their traditional policy-making prerogatives; Protection of labor market programs from uninformed and self-interested private sector input; Record of accomplishments acquired by the governance reform.

This study presents the results of a comparison between perceptions related to 'the difficulties of integrating the labour market in Quebec and Canada, as measured in Statistics Canada and Employment and Immigration Canada's Labour Market Activity Survey (1986-1987), and the difficulties actually experienced, estimated by the objective reasons for quitting a job. It then presents a follow-up of the iteration of sub-groups who have perceived such integration difficulties. The core question consists in verifying the foundations of a widespread opinion according to which individuals are more and more responsible for their probability of being employed, mainly due to their lack of instruction or experience. This study shows that some sub-groups overestimate the weight of their individual responsibility in facing the probability of being employed, as opposed to the responsibility linked with the structural factors. As the follow-up of sub-groups' iteration also shows, the youth likely to enter the labour market, as well as the poorly and moderately schooled sub-groups, experience the most difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an interview with William M. Hamilton, president and chief executive officer of the Employers' Council of British Columbia. Affiliation in the Canadian government in the 1970s; Views on the improvement in the efficiency of postal system in Canada; Problems of Hamilton with organizations and manpower utilization.

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the trends of employment in public service in Canada. It has been mentioned that public expenditure and public employment has experienced considerable growth in Canada, it is supported by various tables in the article. It has been specified that functions of the government could be segregated in three broad categories including defining functions, economic activities and social services. The representation of women in the various categories of federal employment has also been discussed. The employment in provincial and municipal government has also elaborately discussed. The problems related to the employment in public service are also discussed.

Copyright of Canadian Public Administration is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Administration is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents a study which aims to determine the labor force participation rate in the U.S. and in Canada. The study compared and analyzed the track record of a rising participation rate in both countries. Results highlight the disparity in labor force participation rates of prime-age workers and of women due to difference to policies such as childcare subsidies and parental leave policies.

The article presents information on research papers prepared by researchers at the University of Toronto in Ontario. John Crispo is continuing his work on management of internal union trade-offs and on alternative business philosophies and their implications for industrial relations. He is also making a study of collective bargaining in the Canadian breweries and is up-dating his earlier study on international unionism, with particular emphasis on the current impact of international unions on the procedures and substance of collective bargaining in Canada. N.M. Meltz is working on a project concerning information on individual labor markets and manpower policy; he is also studying the application of manpower research to industrial relations. In addition, he is engaged in revising a working paper that will be published as a Report by the Institute of Policy Analysis, University of Toronto, on Patterns of University Education by field of study in Ontario, Canada and the U.S., from 1951 to 1969.