Last November I published a blog on the Edmonton CDC website and more recently repeated that posting here on Anticipate. Reading it first is, I suggest, of value to fully… Read more Livable Income IN a Livable Economy (Part Two: the Impacts of AI) →
Originally posted in November 2018 on the Edmonton CDC Blog. In Edmonton, approximately 140,000 workers are identified as low income earners (earning below $16.31 per hour), according to the Edmonton… Read more Living Wage IN a Livable Economy →
Note: In addition to writing about community change and penning commentary, I am a story teller. I write fiction and spoken word. This piece is a mix of fact and… Read more LIVING POOR: KAREN’S STORY →
Precarious Employment is the jargon people like me use to describe the employment conditions and experiences of a growing number of workers in our country. Here is what that jargon… Read more Ending Precarious Employment – A Game-Changer Strategy →
When an employer won’t allow a worker more than 25 hours a week but requires that worker to be available for work 7 days a week, people become little more… Read more Precarious Work →
Yes, perhaps an odd title for a posting, but bear with me. I was on my way back home from meeting downtown with Alberta Government colleagues who also work in… Read more Mandatory Winter Tires and Poverty →
Big change doesn’t just click on. It occurs over time, starting out often as weak signals of the change to come. Sometimes it’s like the old frog in the boiling water… Read more Signals of Coming Disruption →
The debate about having a living wage has many voices. A colleague recently shared a public letter that a chef wrote to the Premier, expressing how a minimum wage of $15.00 per hour would jeopardize his plans to open a restaurant. He makes many excellent points and does so in clear and respectful language. My colleague also suggested I remember that in Edmonton we have far more small businesses than large corporations and the former may be hard pressed to survive such a rise in the minimum wage. I am… Read more Higher Minimum Wage: More Gain than Pain? →
The Mayors of Edmonton and Calgary are talking about it (read). Many agree with them and I am one; it’s worth a good look. In fact, I suggest that a guaranteed annual income be considered as a foundational strategy to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty. Whether or not it will work depends on a myriad of factors that I do hope we will aptly include in a comprehensive approach to poverty elimination. I won’t pretend that I know what the answers are for what ails us.… Read more Guaranteed Minimum Annual Income in Alberta? →
We all feel better, more confident, when the unemployment rate in Canada is low and getting lower. More people working, more money being spent on consumer goods, less dependence on government programs – it all makes sense. In addition to tracking the unemployment rate, we also track the participation rate, which is basically how many people of working age (typically ages 15 to 65). The higher the participation rate, the better for the economy. Unfortunately, we tend to use simple data to explain and then understand complex things. In a… Read more Employment/Unemployment →
