Armine Yalnizyan is the Atkinson Foundation’s Fellow on the Future of Workers. She served as Senior Economic Policy Advisor for the Deputy Minister at Employment and Social Development Canada from 2018 to 2019. She helped lead the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Inequality Project from 2008 to 2017, and provided weekly business commentaries on CBC radio and CBC TV from 2011 to 2018. She is past President of the Canadian Association for Business Economics.
Hold for full podcast!
As Armine is not a municipal councillor we had to shake up the show format a bit. After Armine introduces herself, we touch on the following and more!.
Topic 1 – Is the issue of housing affordability.
- From communities of 8000 or 70,000 people the same challenge – some of these communities are growing at 6% between census (Lakeshore) others are shrinking Port Colborne (-0.6) and Sarnia -1.1%.
- There is a Councillor who I spoke to who can’t afford buy a home and live in her constituency.
- How does housing affordability impact the future of work and workers?
Topic 2 – You raised the oversized importance of government jobs to smaller communities vs the private sector
- This aligned with a couple of conversations on Rural school closures in smaller towns as these schools are anchor institutions in small communities. Not only good paying jobs but also a community hub/gathering place. Regional accessible and affordable service hubs – health care, childcare and elder care
Topic 3 – Economic Development
- So many smaller communities are looking to diversify their economies and create new types of work. There are jobs without people and people without jobs in Ontario? How do we solve that disconnect?
- Regional mobility programs?
- What should they be looking for? How do they ensure that if they are attracting new people/business it doesn’t displace existing residents?
Topic 4 – Basic Income
- The BC report and her response
Podcast Music notes
Deadly Roulette by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3625-deadly-roulette
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
SW Ontario Council Watcher 