tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/statistics-canada-45430/articlesStatistics Canada – The Conversation2023-08-13T13:36:45Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2110872023-08-13T13:36:45Z2023-08-13T13:36:45ZTo reduce rising crime rates, Canada needs to invest more in social services<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541565/original/file-20230807-27499-r8df14.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C53%2C8946%2C4877&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Crime Severity Index is calculated like a crime rate, but different crimes are given a different weight, or importance, based on their severity.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/to-reduce-rising-crime-rates-canada-needs-to-invest-more-in-social-services" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Every summer, Statistics Canada releases crime rate and crime severity data for the previous year. This year, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/230727/dq230727b-eng.htm?">Canada’s Crime Severity Index (CSI)</a> increased by 4.3 per cent, the violent CSI increased by 4.6 per cent, and the non-violent CSI increased by 4.1 per cent. Moreover, aside from a drop during the COVID-19 pandemic, these indices have been on the rise since 2014.</p>
<p>An April 2023 poll found that <a href="https://leger360.com/surveys/legers-north-american-tracker-april-13-2023/">65 per cent of Canadians</a> felt crime has gotten worse compared to before the pandemic. Conservative Party leader <a href="https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/poilievre-blames-rising-violence-in-alberta-canada-on-his-political-opponents-1.6354594">Pierre Poilievre has criticized the Liberal government</a> for the rising crime figures in recent months. </p>
<p>Canada’s new justice minister, Arif Virani, said it was <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canada-s-new-justice-minister-to-tackle-perceived-lack-of-safety-from-crime-1.6501641">empirically unlikely</a> that Canadians are less safe, but that the government would act to address feelings of growing insecurity.</p>
<p>But what is the CSI and what do changes in crime stats mean for Canadians?</p>
<h2>What is the Crime Severity Index?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/lbrr/archives/cnmcs-plcng/cn5373-eng.pdf">CSI was introduced in 2009</a> and represented the first major change in measuring crime in Canada since the 1960s. Its purpose was to identify changes in the seriousness or severity of crime reported to the police. </p>
<p>The CSI is calculated like a crime rate, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-004-x/2009001/part-partie1-eng.htm">but different crimes are given a different weight, or importance, based on their severity</a>. Without this kind of system, a community that has 10 low-level assaults will have the same violent crime rate as another that has 10 homicides because each incident would be given the same weight. </p>
<p>The CSI accounts for this by using different weights for different crime types: approximately 80 for <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-224-x/2008000/dd-eng.htm">assault level 1</a>, 7,000 for homicide and one for gambling. These weights are based on sentencing decisions in the court system.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541310/original/file-20230804-17921-t4cr8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graph showing Canada's crime severity index between 1998 and 2022. The graph shows a decrease until 2014 followed by a slight increase in subsequent years." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541310/original/file-20230804-17921-t4cr8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541310/original/file-20230804-17921-t4cr8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541310/original/file-20230804-17921-t4cr8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541310/original/file-20230804-17921-t4cr8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541310/original/file-20230804-17921-t4cr8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541310/original/file-20230804-17921-t4cr8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541310/original/file-20230804-17921-t4cr8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police-reported crime severity indexes in Canada from 1998 to 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/230727/cg-b001-eng.htm">(Statistics Canada)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Understanding the data</h2>
<p>At first glance, the CSI is great because it allows us to determine which areas experience more violence. However, there are at least three issues when considering what changes in the CSI mean for most Canadians.</p>
<p>First, the CSI must be considered over longer periods of time than year-to-year fluctuations. We now have the CSI for 1998-2022, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/62-001-x/2018001/info-eng.htm">25 years of data</a>. Yes, the CSI has been increasing since 2014, but it is still much lower than it was 25 years ago. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-017-0076-y">Crime has been falling around the world</a>, including Canada, since about 1990. It may be the case that 2014, for Canada, was just the low point for crime. Because of this, relatively small changes in incidents will have large percentage changes.</p>
<p>Second, because the CSI is calculated in a similar fashion to crime rates, places with lower populations will be “punished” by the CSI. For example, in a city of one million people, one homicide will lead to a homicide rate of 0.1 per 100,000 people. However, in a city of 15,000 people, one homicide will lead to a rate of 6.67 per 100,000 people. </p>
<p>Now if you add in the weights used in the CSI, this disparity becomes magnified. To be clear, the math is not wrong — it is just that the statistic has its limitations. The CSI is fine for Canada, its provinces and larger metropolitan centres. But, for the rest of the country, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12703">the CSI should be interpreted with caution</a>.</p>
<p>Third, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-016-9295-8">crime is usually concentrated in specific areas</a>. Across the world, including Canada, one-half of crime reported to the police occurs in approximately five per cent of the city. These places are, generally speaking, areas that experience more poverty, mental health and addiction problems, and other social challenges. </p>
<p>In short, those who are already suffering most, especially post-pandemic, are being victimized more with these increases in crime in Canada; this has been shown in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-021-09495-6">Vancouver</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2022.101881">Saskatoon</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541564/original/file-20230807-35364-68n6bz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A sign that reads Statistics Canada in front of a tall grey building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541564/original/file-20230807-35364-68n6bz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541564/original/file-20230807-35364-68n6bz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541564/original/file-20230807-35364-68n6bz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541564/original/file-20230807-35364-68n6bz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541564/original/file-20230807-35364-68n6bz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541564/original/file-20230807-35364-68n6bz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541564/original/file-20230807-35364-68n6bz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The CSI is calculated in a similar fashion to crime rates, which means rates in areas with lower populations can appear higher in the data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reducing crime</h2>
<p>What should our takeaway be here? We need to be careful of how we interpret the CSI. Crime has been increasing the past eight years: homicide, sexual assault, assault (particularly with a weapon) and vehicle theft are all increasing more than average. So, despite my caveats, crime has been increasing of late, particularly violent crimes. </p>
<p>The notable common thread in all of the media coverage of these violent attacks is the presence of mental health issues, addiction, homelessness and poverty. How did we get here? Over the past 40 years, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2020-007">conservative governments</a> have defunded <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/welfare-state">social programs and social services</a>.</p>
<p>A result of these changes has been a decrease in social welfare and increases in social ills. Where we are today is the result of a 40-year process that we cannot expect to reverse in short order. We need to reinvest in social programs and services, knowing it will take time to see an impact. </p>
<p>Putting government funding back into social services is a large component of the <a href="https://defundthepolice.org/">Defund the Police</a> movement. Rather than continuing to spend on <a href="https://theconversation.com/data-shows-that-police-involved-deaths-in-canada-are-on-the-rise-201443">reactive models</a> such as policing that do little more than criminalize poverty and disadvantage, we need to reinvest in preventive strategies that actually work.</p>
<p>To prevent crime, governments need to invest more in existing social welfare programs and reestablish social services such as basic income.</p>
<p>This spending on social welfare services and basic income should be viewed positively across the political spectrum as well. The provision of basic income and social services would both <a href="https://lorimer.ca/adults/product/basic-income-for-canadians-2/">support vulnerable populations and be cost-effective</a>. </p>
<p>If we are concerned about crime and its severity, we should support reinvesting public funds into preventative strategies such as housing, mental health care, basic income and addiction services.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211087/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Andresen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Recent data from Statistics Canada shows crime rates in Canada rising. Crime has become a hot-button political issue in Canadian cities. But what does the data actually mean?Martin Andresen, Professor of Criminology, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1962662023-01-08T13:26:21Z2023-01-08T13:26:21ZSupporting minority languages requires more than token gestures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503327/original/file-20230105-12-dlbbtf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C77%2C7315%2C4825&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Language policy in Canada suggests misunderstanding among government officials and the general public about language use, international language rights and their implications.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In August 2022, Statistics Canada released the latest census data on languages in Canada. According to the data, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220817/dq220817a-eng.htm">over nine million people — or one in four Canadians</a> — has a mother tongue other than English or French (a record high since the 1901 census). </p>
<p><a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-627-m/11-627-m2022051-eng.htm">Twelve per cent of Canadians</a> speak a language other than English or French at home. Statistics Canada observes that the country’s linguistic diversity will likely continue to grow into the future.</p>
<p>Yet, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-96-explained-1.6460764">recent developments</a> in language policy and practices in Canada reveal that there is confusion and misunderstanding among government officials and the general public about language use, international language rights and their implications.</p>
<p>In Canada, there must be greater understanding of the cultural and linguistic rights of minorities. According to universally accepted human rights, persons belonging to majorities and minorities should have equal rights. Minorities are entitled to equal conditions and services to enable them to maintain their identity, culture and language.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white street sign in the English and Inuit languages that reads: Mittimatalil." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A street sign in the English and Inuit languages at Pond Inlet on Baffin Island, Nvt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The 1966 <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-civil-and-political-rights">International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights</a>, a human rights treaty to which Canada is a party, provides that “In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language.”</p>
<p>The 1992 <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/declaration-rights-persons-belonging-national-or-ethnic">UN Declaration on Minorities</a> clarifies and expands on this treaty provision. It stipulates that UN member states should enact legislative and other measures to protect minority identities.</p>
<h2>Confusing words</h2>
<p>Two words <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-003-1024-0">are often confused</a> in Canada: integration and assimilation. When speaking about immigrants and refugees, <a href="https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-2.5/page-1.html#h-274085">Canadian law’s stated objective is integration</a>. And the default framework for integration is the majority culture and language. </p>
<p>Non-anglophone and non-francophone immigrants are expected to adapt and conform to the Canadian way of doing things, learn Canadian history, celebrate Canadian holidays and speak in one or both of Canada’s official languages.</p>
<p>But these languages reflect the cultures of Canada’s two historically dominant groups. For many Indigenous people and immigrants, histories, holidays and languages differ from the majority of Canadians.</p>
<p>Involuntary assimilation is <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G05/133/85/PDF/G0513385.pdf?OpenElement">prohibited under international law</a>. This is a colonialist and imperialist practice which ultimately forces people to alter or surrender their identity, culture and dissolve into the majority. </p>
<p>Canada’s notorious <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools">residential schools</a> were one of the harshest examples of such assimilationist policies. Other essentially assimilationist practices continue to this day. For example, the law states that provinces must provide education to English or French-speaking minorities <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/check/art23.html">in their own language</a>. But there is no similar legislation for Indigenous languages, nor for those spoken by people who immigrate from all around the world. These policies will increasingly conflict with growing diversity as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63643912">Canada seeks to welcome 1.5 million immigrants</a> over the next three years.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/language-learning-in-canada-needs-to-change-to-reflect-superdiverse-communities-144037">Language learning in Canada needs to change to reflect 'superdiverse' communities</a>
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<p>In contrast, <a href="https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/0/9/96883.pdf">integration</a> is based on recognition of diversity. Integration is a two-way process through which minorities and majorities learn about and engage with each other’s cultures and languages. </p>
<p>While maintaining their own distinctiveness, majority and minority groups contribute to shared foundations and institutions of the society out of common interest and for mutual benefit. This is important for the many individuals who possess multiple or overlapping identities.</p>
<p>In 2012, the <a href="https://www.osce.org/">Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe</a>, of which Canada is a participating state, released <a href="https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/0/9/96883.pdf">Guidelines on Integration of Diverse Societies</a>, in which it explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Integration is a process that requires that all members of a given society accept common public institutions and have a shared sense of belonging to a common State and an inclusive society. This does not exclude the possibility of distinct identities, which are constantly evolving, multiple and contextual. Mechanisms aiming at mutual accommodation are essential to negotiate the legitimate claims put forward by different groups or communities.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Integration requires accommodation of diversity. It also means that governments should invest proportionally in the promotion of majority and minority cultures and languages with a view to facilitating full lives in dignity and equal rights for everyone. This requires more than token support for cultural activities such as traditional food and dance.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People at a protest carry signs featuring the number 96 with a red line across it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">People take part in a protest against Bill 96 in Montréal. Québec’s language law reform, known as Bill 96, forbids provincial government agencies and municipalities from using languages other than French.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
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<p>There is also confusion around the issue of minority language status. In Canada there is a common belief that the only minority language(s) entitled to protection are the ones with official or other recognized status. But according to international human rights principles, all minority cultures and languages should be protected <a href="https://ap.ohchr.org/documents/E/GA/report/A_74_160.pdf">regardless of whether they hold “official” status</a>. </p>
<p>This means that the languages of Indigenous Peoples as well as of other people living in Canada should be acknowledged and facilitated. This is essential for their well-being and for genuine equality in rights.</p>
<h2>Not a zero-sum game</h2>
<p>Genuine integration should respect and promote diversity in the languages used in various contexts of public life. This does not necessarily require changing the number and status of official languages; it’s not a zero-sum game. But it does require adjusting language policies to reconcile with existing realities in reasonable and meaningful ways. The aim is real and effective equality. </p>
<p>Technological innovations (such as easily accessible <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/02/05/translation-tech-solutions-language-barriers-google-translate-interpreter/4596091002/">real-time translation</a>) make this more possible and cost-effective than ever.</p>
<p>In order to live together peacefully and embrace diversity, Canadians need to understand that languages are not just a means of technical communication, but are often at the core of people’s identity and culture. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/residential-day-school-survivors-who-lost-language-and-culture-seek-redress-1.3032862">Taking away a person’s language</a> often amounts to taking away their sense of self, dignity and community belonging. It also suppresses the remarkable linguistic assets that Canada possesses.</p>
<p>Building a Canadian nation through assimilation of minorities in the face of increasing diversity only generates social tensions and conflicts. It is not democracy, it is majoritarianism. It is contrary to fundamental human rights and signals social regression rather than progress. </p>
<p>Instead, Canada should foster a forward-looking, human-centred and dynamic society that embraces diversity, multiculturalism and multilingualism. This is to our advantage. Canada’s rich linguistic diversity is an asset that should be valued. We must cast off the old colonialist thinking and seize the rich possibilities that are at hand.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196266/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Veaceslav Balan is a member of the University of Ottawa Human Rights Research and Education Centre.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frederick John Packer receives funding from SSHRC. He is affiliated with a number of human rights NGOs including Human Rights Watch (Canada Committee) and the International Commission of Jurists (Canada Section). </span></em></p>Canada’s population is more diverse than ever, with many different languages represented. Government policy must reflect that diversity and offer meaningful support to minority languages.Veaceslav Balan, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaFrederick John Packer, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1946162022-11-24T18:05:26Z2022-11-24T18:05:26ZHigh food prices could have negative long-term health effects on Canadians<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496602/original/file-20221121-19043-8yzvq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C431%2C4516%2C2932&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nearly 60 per cent of Canadians are finding it difficult to provide enough food for themselves and their families.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/high-food-prices-could-have-negative-long-term-health-effects-on-canadians" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Recent high food price inflation has plagued many Canadian families, especially those on tight budgets. <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221116/dq221116a-eng.htm">Statistics Canada reported in October</a> that in-store food prices increased at a faster rate than the all-items Consumer Price Index for the 11th month in a row.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://osnp.ca/about/who-we-are/">Ontario Student Nutrition Program</a>, which feeds 28,000 students at 93 participating schools, has been <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/nutrition-von-school-meals-inflation-1.6568430">hit hard by inflation and is in need of more funding and volunteers</a>. The school breakfast that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/student-nutrition-breakfast-lunch-programs-ontario-1.6569524">used to cost $1.20, now costs over $2</a>.</p>
<p>A recent study from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute found nearly <a href="https://angusreid.org/canada-economy-inflation-rate-hike-debt/">60 per cent of Canadians are struggling to provide food</a> for their families. When they can afford to buy food, many cannot afford to buy enough, or buy the food they want. </p>
<p>They end up <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/skipping-meals-and-cutting-back-how-some-canadians-are-dealing-with-higher-cost-of-living-1.6100828">skipping meals, eating old and low-quality foods</a>, visiting different grocery stores to find cheaper options, which results in insufficient nutrition. A <a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/sites/agri-food/220918_PR_Food%20Inflation_EN.pdf">Dalhousie University study</a> of 5,000 Canadians found that 23.6 per cent of the population cut back food purchases and 7.1 per cent skipped meals due to inflation. </p>
<h2>Over-spending on food</h2>
<p>Generally speaking, moderate inflation is not bad. The Bank of Canada <a href="https://www.bankofcanada.ca/core-functions/monetary-policy">targets a two per cent inflation rate</a> — the midpoint of its one and three per cent range. The Bank of Canada influences the inflation rate by manipulating the interest rate. </p>
<p>However, the current high inflation is different — the Bank of Canada itself has acknowledged this. In a recent speech, <a href="https://www.bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/remarks-2022-10-06.pdf">the central bank’s governor, Tiff Macklem, said,</a> “high inflation is making life more difficult for Canadians, especially those with low or fixed incomes.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221019/dq221019a-eng.htm">Food, shelter and transportation</a> account for over 60 per cent of a household’s expenses. If only food prices were subject to high inflation, households would be able to divert income from shelter and transportation to cover it. At the moment, however, high inflation spans across all three areas, meaning Canadians are having trouble putting food on the table, keeping a roof over their heads and affording transportation. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A pie chart showing how much the average Canadian household spends on expenses including food, shelter and transportation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496600/original/file-20221121-19007-8yzvq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496600/original/file-20221121-19007-8yzvq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496600/original/file-20221121-19007-8yzvq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496600/original/file-20221121-19007-8yzvq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496600/original/file-20221121-19007-8yzvq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496600/original/file-20221121-19007-8yzvq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496600/original/file-20221121-19007-8yzvq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">According to the Consumer Price Index, food, shelter and transportation account for over 60 per cent of a household’s expenses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Statistics Canada)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://economics.td.com/domains/economics.td.com/documents/reports/rb/Inflations_Toll_On_Canadian_Families.pdf">amount of money that middle-income households spend on transportation and food</a> makes them vulnerable. But the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-bank-of-canada-just-hiked-interest-rates-for-the-sixth-time-is-it-too-late-193371">recent interest rate increases</a> are not helping low-income people either. Canadians spend the highest proportion of their income (nearly one-third) to keep a <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221019/dq221019a-eng.htm">roof over their head</a>. The recent increases in lending rates have driven up housing costs.</p>
<p><a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/sites/agri-food/Food%20Price%20Report%202021%20-%20EN%20(December%208).pdf">Canada’s Food Price Report indicates that</a>, historically, Canadians spend less than 10 per cent of their income on food. But that has changed — Canadians now spend 16 per cent of their income on food. The report also states that the food inflation index has outpaced general inflation over the last 20 years. The price of a typical grocery bill <a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/sites/agri-food/Food%20Price%20Report%20-%20EN%202022.pdf">rose by 70 per cent between 2000 and 2020</a>.</p>
<h2>Canadian health suffering</h2>
<p>A key side-effect of rising food price inflation is its impact on health and nutrition. When the cost of food increases, it restricts the availability of nutritious foods for low-income people. Eventually, this can lead to long-term impacts on human health and puts added pressure on Canada’s already strained health-care system. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://proof.utoronto.ca/food-insecurity/what-are-the-implications-of-food-insecurity-for-health-and-health-care/">research from the University of Toronto</a>, an insecure food supply increases vulnerability to a variety of diseases and health conditions, including infectious diseases, poor oral health, injuries and chronic conditions like depression and anxiety, heart disease, hypertension, arthritis and chronic pain.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two women pushing shopping carts down the aisle of a grocery store" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496601/original/file-20221121-18440-mcl194.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496601/original/file-20221121-18440-mcl194.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496601/original/file-20221121-18440-mcl194.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496601/original/file-20221121-18440-mcl194.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496601/original/file-20221121-18440-mcl194.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496601/original/file-20221121-18440-mcl194.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496601/original/file-20221121-18440-mcl194.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Historically, Canadians spend less than 10 per cent of their income on food. But due to inflation and the rising cost of living, Canadians now spend 16 per cent of their income on food.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, a study by researchers from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fnutrit%2Fnuv105">the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies</a>, found that nutrition, especially in the postnatal state, is the most important factor affecting human growth. This indicates that shorter adult height in low- and middle-income countries is linked to environmental conditions like nutrition. </p>
<p>We need to pay special attention to food price inflation because it has the potential to have long-lasting effects on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-015-0697-6">future generations’ physical and mental health</a>. Our children are our future — we have no room for compromise with their food and nutrition. Today’s malnourished children will result in tomorrow’s malnourished nation.</p>
<h2>Co-ordinated effort required</h2>
<p>It is essential to make policymakers and governments aware of this devastating situation so they can take the necessary steps to combat rising food prices. Governments and policymakers must ensure Canadians have access to affordable, nutritional food. </p>
<p>As a short-term solution, Canadians should consider buying seasonal and frozen foods, growing foods themselves and replacing meats with legumes. To tackle food price inflation from a systemic perspective, policymakers should index social welfare amounts with inflation as quickly as possible to prevent unpredictable food price hikes for social welfare recipients. </p>
<p>Lastly, businesses should not take advantage of people’s desperation by increasing food prices. Canada’s <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/canada-food-price-profits-1.6629854">three biggest grocery chains have been posting massive profits</a> recently. They could use these profits to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-delicate-balance-between-grocery-store-profit-and-food-security-180013">offset some of the cost of food price inflation</a>. There is no silver bullet for tackling the high food price inflation effectively, but it will require a co-ordinated effort from all sides — governments, businesses and households.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194616/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shahidul Islam does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Inflation is driving up food prices and could have a severe impact on the health of Canadians. When the cost of food increases, it restricts the availability of nutritious foods for low-income people.Shahidul Islam, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Economics, and Political Science, MacEwan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1889592022-08-18T19:25:43Z2022-08-18T19:25:43ZAn economist explains: What you need to know about inflation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479711/original/file-20220817-11729-7y5aga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C4955%2C3315&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A number of factors have contributed to the recent rise in inflation, including supply chain disruptions, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and labour shortages.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/an-economist-explains--what-you-need-to-know-about-inflation" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Inflation is one of the most pressing political and economic issues of the moment, but there are many misconceptions about how inflation is measured, where it comes from and how it impacts the average person. </p>
<p>In June, inflation in Canada reached a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-inflation-rate-1.6526060">40-year high of 8.1 per cent</a>. While there are <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/inflation-rate-july-1.6552298">signs inflation may be moderating</a>, many Canadians have dealt with the surging cost of living by <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canadians-cutting-back-ari-study-1.6500505#">cutting back on expenses</a>, <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/other/canadians-delaying-retirement-amid-surging-inflation-poll-finds/ar-AAYB2pY">working more to increase their income, drawing on their savings or taking on more debt</a>. </p>
<p>As an economics professor who conducts research on prices and consumption, I would like to provide some insight into how inflation is measured and how it is impacting Canadians and the economy at large. </p>
<h2>What is inflation?</h2>
<p>Inflation refers to a general increase in prices and the resulting decline in the purchasing power of money. While most of us can sense whether inflation is high or low from everyday purchases, <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/subjects-start/prices_and_price_indexes/consumer_price_indexes">the inflation rate that gets reported in the press and discussed by policy-makers</a> is a specific measure created by a small army of statisticians and data collectors. </p>
<p><a href="https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=2301&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2">Statistics Canada constructs the Consumer Price Index (CPI)</a> used to track inflation through a two-step process. In the first step, Statistics Canada collects over one million price quotes on virtually anything purchasable in the country. </p>
<p>Prices are recorded in a variety of ways, and the frequency and geography of price collection depends on the item. For example, items with prices that change quickly like food or gasoline, or vary across locations like rent, are collected more frequently than items that are collected once a year, like university tuition or insurance rates.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Gas prices are displayed behind a close up shot of a gas pump" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479708/original/file-20220817-22-k2gdfb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479708/original/file-20220817-22-k2gdfb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479708/original/file-20220817-22-k2gdfb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479708/original/file-20220817-22-k2gdfb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479708/original/file-20220817-22-k2gdfb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479708/original/file-20220817-22-k2gdfb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479708/original/file-20220817-22-k2gdfb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">While constructing the Consumer Price Index, Statistics Canada collects price quotes on items with prices that change quickly, like gas, more frequently than items with steadier prices, like insurance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the second step, Statistics Canada aggregates these prices to generate the all-item Consumer Price Index by weighing each item’s price change by its share of total consumer spending. These weights are occasionally updated to <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/62f0014m/62f0014m2022009-eng.htm">reflect changes in consumer spending patterns</a>. </p>
<p>The most recent update in 2021 reflects some pandemic-related spending changes, such as a lower weight for food (15.75 per cent) and transportation (16.16 per cent), but a higher weight for shelter (29.67 per cent). </p>
<p>Statistics Canada and the Bank of Canada also measure “<a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/statistical-programs/document/2301_D64_T9_V2">core inflation</a>” which removes items with the most volatile prices (food and energy) from the CPI to provide a better sense of slower-moving, long-term cost pressures.</p>
<h2>What causes inflation?</h2>
<p>Prices are determined by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/supply-and-demand">supply and demand</a>. High inflation is a sign that, across the economy, demand for goods and services exceeds their supply. </p>
<p>Demand has been strong due to <a href="https://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/about/economics/economics-publications/post.other-publications.economic-indicators.scotia-flash.-december-3--2021-.html">strong employment and wage growth</a>, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/hot-inflation-opens-rare-attack-on-bank-of-canada-1.5959770">cheap credit</a>, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/stimulus-not-the-cause-of-canada-s-inflation-problem-says-former-bank-of-canada-governor-1.5683699">pandemic-related payments from governments</a> and <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-great-consumer-shift-ten-charts-that-show-how-us-shopping-behavior-is-changing">pandemic-related shifts in demand towards goods consumed at home</a>. </p>
<p>Supply has been disrupted by the pandemic’s effects on <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-factories-opt-isolation-bubbles-beat-covid-curbs-keep-running-2022-03-17/">Chinese factories</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-prices-so-high-blame-the-supply-chain-and-thats-the-reason-inflation-is-here-to-stay-169441">international supply chains</a>, <a href="https://unctad.org/news/shipping-during-covid-19-why-container-freight-rates-have-surged">container shipping</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22841783/truck-drivers-shortage-supply-chain-pandemic">trucking</a> and the Russian invasion of Ukraine that <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/13/russia-ukraine-war-threatens-billions-un-warns-as-food-energy-prices-soar.html">led to recent spikes in food and energy prices</a> around the world. </p>
<h2>Inflation feels higher than it is</h2>
<p>Many Canadians <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/62f0014m/62f0014m2021017-eng.htm">feel like prices rose by more than 8.1 per cent</a> in the last year. Beyond <a href="https://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/about/economics/economics-publications/post.other-publications.economic-indicators.scotia-flash.-december-15--2021-.html">specific criticism of the CPI methodology in Canada</a>, there are at least two reasons for this. </p>
<p>First, consumer spending is measured through surveys that capture the diversity of spending patterns in the population, but collapse this diversity into a single set of weights that treats each dollar of spending equally. <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/210122/dq210122b-eng.htm">Spending patterns vary</a> with age, income, location, household composition and taste, and your personal budget might bear little resemblance to the weights used for the CPI. </p>
<p>Second, we are more likely to <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/11-621-m/11-621-m2010084-eng.pdf?st=XOSSrt4k">notice price changes for items we purchase frequently</a>, and we <a href="https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2020/08/perceived-inflation-reality-understanding-the-difference/">tend to notice price increases more than decreases</a>. The items with the highest price increases in the last year — energy and food — have these characteristics, and we are less likely to notice the (lower) inflation rate for furniture, electronics, education and health goods that balance these out. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Cereals and cereal products displayed for sale at a grocery store" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479710/original/file-20220817-12158-ynmg73.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479710/original/file-20220817-12158-ynmg73.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479710/original/file-20220817-12158-ynmg73.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479710/original/file-20220817-12158-ynmg73.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479710/original/file-20220817-12158-ynmg73.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479710/original/file-20220817-12158-ynmg73.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479710/original/file-20220817-12158-ynmg73.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We tend to notice price increases for items we purchase frequently, like groceries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also pay a lot of attention to soaring house prices and interest rates — especially in big cities — but the <a href="https://www.bcbc.com/insights-and-opinions/how-do-house-prices-affect-the-consumer-price-index#_ftn7">cost of owned accommodation in the CPI</a> is based on historical averages of housing prices (25 years) and interest rates (five years) that reflect long-term financing costs for the average homeowner, not someone buying a house today.</p>
<h2>How does inflation impact us?</h2>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/145181/inflation/who-are-the-winners-and-losers-from-inflation/">winners and losers</a> when it comes to inflation. While it can hurt businesses that <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/first-the-pandemic-now-inflation-quebec-s-small-businesses-are-slammed-again-1.5910932">end up passing cost increases onto their customers</a>, it can <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2022/07/09/supermarkets-are-hiking-prices-faster-than-necessary-and-profiting-from-inflation-star-investigation-suggests.html">benefit others</a> by allowing them to <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/99/1/151/58363/Market-Structure-and-Cost-Pass-Through-in-Retail?redirectedFrom=fulltext">raise their prices</a> without customer backlash because “everyone else is doing it.” </p>
<p>High inflation is <a href="https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2022/feb/relationship-wage-growth-inflation-one-recession-later">often, but not always, accompanied by high wage growth</a>. Individuals who earn no or below-inflation wages are hurt, while individuals with wages indexed to inflation or <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8332153/wage-inflation-bank-of-canada/">who are able to negotiate better wages</a> can benefit. Individuals like seniors on fixed incomes are often hurt by inflation, although many <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2022/06/deputy-prime-minister-outlines-governments-affordability-plan-for-canadians.html">government benefits are indexed to inflation</a>. </p>
<p>Some asset prices are better at keeping pace with inflation. Prices of housing, stocks, art and precious metals may go up, while assets with fixed dollar values like cash and bonds do not. </p>
<p>Inflation can make it easier to repay debts, as long as wages or other asset prices keep pace. Inflation <a href="https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2021/10/21/can-inflation-offset-government-debt">can also benefit government finances as tax revenues rise</a> relative to the dollar value of the debt. </p>
<p>While the source of our current inflation is irrelevant to consumers, it matters for economic policy. Central banks and governments must decide whether to curb demand and risk recession <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/economists-predict-a-mild-recession-but-what-would-that-look-like-in-canada-1.6027857">by raising interest rates</a>, cutting spending or raising taxes, or wait and hope that supply-side inflation pressures ease up on their own. </p>
<p>We can only hope that it will not take a major recession to end this period of high inflation (unlike the <a href="https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/bank-of-canada-ready-to-tighten-like-the-1990s-1.1751318">last major effort by the Bank of Canada to lower inflation</a>) and that Canada avoids “<a href="https://theconversation.com/1970s-style-stagflation-now-playing-on-central-bankers-minds-185868">stagflation</a>,” the combination of high inflation and high unemployment that afflicted many economies in the late 1970s.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188959/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Li does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An economist provides insight into how inflation is measured, where it comes from and how it is impacting Canadians and the economy at large.Nicholas Li, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1583432021-05-03T13:57:16Z2021-05-03T13:57:16ZCensus 2021: Canadians are talking about race. But the census hasn’t caught up.<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396394/original/file-20210421-19-x9f194.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C6272%2C4181&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This May, people across Canada will be asked to fill out the 2021 census.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This May, Canadians will again be asked if they identify as a member of a set list of minority groups when filling out the <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/statistical-programs/instrument/3901_Q2_V6">long-form census</a>. That data is used to measure the portion of Canada’s population that are designated as visible minorities, a concept and term increasingly out of step with the times.</p>
<p>The pandemic has laid bare <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00215-4">racial inequalities</a>, and racial justice activist groups, like <a href="https://www.blacklivesmatter.ca/">Black Lives Matter</a>, have put anti-Black racism high on the public agenda. Systemic racism, rather than visible minority status, is at the centre of debate. While Canadians are now talking more explicitly about race, the census has yet to catch up. </p>
<p>“We’re going to have to ask ourselves, what do we want to do with that category now?” says Michael Haan, a demographer and member of <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/about/relevant/aceis">a committee</a> that advises Statistics Canada on ethnocultural diversity. According to him, the committee has had many internal debates about terminology. </p>
<h2>Indirectly asking questions</h2>
<p>Canada’s <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/anti-racism-engagement/anti-racism-strategy.html">anti-racism strategy</a>, which draws on decades’ worth of research, states that race is a social construct. There is no basis for classifying people according to race, but racial bias and discrimination have very real effects. </p>
<p>The question is: How do we get relevant data from the census and other surveys on the impact of systemic racism?</p>
<p>Statistics Canada tries to gather this information without directly asking about race. Race-based data is needed, says Jean-Pierre Corbeil, a diversity specialist at Statistics Canada. But he wonders whether that actually requires referring to race on the census.</p>
<p>Historically, the government has been reluctant to ask directly about race, which has led to a lack of disaggregated data. After the Second World War, the census used indirect methods of estimating the non-white, non-Indigenous population through racial proxies like language or ethnocultural origin.</p>
<p>That changed in 1996, says political scientist Debra Thompson, when Statistics Canada began asking Canadians whether they identified as a visible minority. The term, Thompson notes, makes it seem “that things are not about race when of course they absolutely are.”</p>
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<h2>Identifying as a visible minority</h2>
<p>The question on visible minorities was added to the census because of the <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-5.401/">Employment Equity Act</a>. In order to measure how the white versus the non-white population fares in the labour market as required by this law, the government needed to know who is a visible minority.</p>
<p>For the purposes of the Employment Equity Act, says Haan, the question works. But he acknowledges the drawbacks: “Is it a perfect facsimile of race or racialization? No, it’s not.”</p>
<p>Many criticized, and still criticize the government’s approach. The <a href="https://undocs.org/en/CERD/C/CAN/CO/21-23">United Nations</a> has repeatedly pointed out that the term “visible minority” lumps together diverse communities and threatens to erase differences among them. Corbeil says Statistics Canada is well aware of the criticism.</p>
<h2>Not easily done</h2>
<p>However, changing the terminology is politically sensitive. Moving away from it would likely require changing the Employment Equity Act, says Fo Niemi, head of Montreal-based <a href="http://www.crarr.org/">Center for Research-Action on Race Relations</a>.</p>
<p>Instead, Statistics Canada is trying to <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/transparency-accountability/disaggregated-data">respond to the demand</a> for more race-disaggregated data through special crowdsourced surveys and increasing sample sizes of marginalized people to allow for enhanced analysis. </p>
<p>For example, with support from <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/federal-anti-racism-secretariat.html">the federal Anti-Racism Secretariat</a>, it has produced a <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/200225/dq200225b-eng.htm">socio-economic analysis</a> on the Black population.</p>
<p>During the pandemic, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/45-28-0001/2020001/article/00079-eng.htm">census data</a> has also been combined with other statistics to show that mortality rates are higher in neighbourhoods where <a href="https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/ncov/epi/2020/06/covid-19-epi-diversity.pdf?la=en">visible minorities</a> live.</p>
<p>“What people want is really to have information on Black Canadians, to have information on South Asians or Latin American Canadians,” says Corbeil. But those categories are controversial too. White, South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Latin American, Arab, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean or Japanese are options non-Indigenous Canadians can choose from on the census. “Other” is also an option, but many feel unrepresented by the list. </p>
<h2>Expand or shorten the list?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/ref/dict/pop111-eng.cfm">population groups</a>, as Statistics Canada calls them, have remained largely unchanged since 1996. The agency uses the list, which was developed through an inter-departmental process in the 1980s — according to Thompson, how the groups were chosen is “a bit of a mystery.”</p>
<p>They are now part of Canada’s <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/11-627-m/11-627-m2020051-eng.pdf?st=Y0TeYIKr">national statistical standards</a> and are widely used by the federal government, including in the monthly labour force survey, which began recording visible minority status as of <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/200807/dq200807a-eng.htm">July 2020</a>. </p>
<p>Statistics Canada has considered changing the list. One alternative was to expand it, but that risked making the answers too similar to the <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/ref/98-20-0001/982000012020002-eng.cfm">separate ethnocultural origin question</a>. Another was to shorten the list and provide broader categories. Statistics Canada even tested this approach in a 2019 trial run of the census. Respondents had to choose their “descent” from seven options: North American; Latin American; European; North African; African, Afro-Caribbean or African-Canadian; Middle Eastern or West Asian; and Other Asian. </p>
<p>But according to Corbeil, the problem there was that Statistics Canada couldn’t identify who was Black because Black Canadians are highly diverse and come from all over the world. That’s important, because the agency’s consultations indicate that “many people want to identify as Black Canadians,” says Corbeil. Because the test was inconclusive, the options have not been changed for the 2021 census.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-in-a-word-how-to-confront-150-years-of-racial-stereotypes-dont-call-me-resilient-153790">What's in a word? How to confront 150 years of racial stereotypes: Don't Call Me Resilient</a>
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<h2>Changing the census isn’t so simple</h2>
<p>Dr. Andrew Pinto, a public health and preventive medicine specialist and family physician, is a researcher with <a href="https://upstreamlab.org/2020/04/15/data-on-race-covid19/">The Upstream Lab</a>, which has studied the collection of racial data by health-care providers, says that if patients understand that disclosing their race will be used to address systemic racism, they are willing to provide the information.</p>
<p>For now, Statistics Canada is reluctant to refer directly to race anywhere on the census. The agency is cautious and for good reasons, says Haan. In order to compare data over time, the questions and the answers need to stay the same. “The census is the gold standard,” he says, “so any modification is carefully considered.”</p>
<p>Thompson also cautions that simply having the data won’t solve the problem of systemic racism.</p>
<p>“Yes, we need disaggregated racial data. [But] we also need governments that are brave enough to create targeted policies.”</p>
<p><em>This is a corrected version of a story originally published on May 3, 2021. The earlier story said Canadians will be asked if they identify as a visible minority. The long-form census doesn’t use the term “visible minority,” but Statistics Canada still uses the term in its analysis of census data in accordance with the Employment Equity Act.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158343/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bryony Lau does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the conversation about race and diversity becomes more common, why haven’t we updated our census to reflect that?Bryony Lau, Dalla Lana Fellow, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1361102020-04-13T21:38:27Z2020-04-13T21:38:27ZOfficial unemployment numbers don’t show the true crisis for workers affected by coronavirus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327535/original/file-20200413-119836-1ytceut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C84%2C4336%2C3099&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Statistics Canada reports that more than one million Canadians lost their job in the first month of the coronavirus pandemic, but the official figures don't reflect the true impact on workers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>According to Statistics Canada, the <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/200409/dq200409a-eng.htm">official unemployment</a> rate has jumped to 7.8 per cent as more than one million Canadians lost their jobs in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>“The employment decline in March was larger than in any of the three significant recessions experienced since 1980,” Statistics Canada reported.</p>
<p>An additional 2.1 million people worked fewer than half their normal hours or not at all between March 15 and 21. Although these figures are troubling, they are also unsurprising. In the midst of a public health emergency, keeping people out of workplaces has been a necessary part of the social distancing strategy intended to stop the spread of COVID-19.</p>
<p>Yet the difficulty governments across Canada have had in meeting the needs of workers impacted by the coronavirus crisis has exposed the holes in our social safety net and the inadequacy of existing labour laws. </p>
<p>It’s important to recognize the official jobless numbers are underestimating the severity of the crisis for many working people. </p>
<p>For starters, even before this current crisis, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-global-history/article/origins-of-informality-the-ilo-at-the-limit-of-the-concept-of-unemployment/5784F429875BA8151575AA5010D3712A">official unemployment</a> has grown increasingly difficult to measure due to the spread of precarious forms of employment.</p>
<h2>COVID-19 could heighten economic insecurity</h2>
<p>Despite the <a href="https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2020/03/economic-progress-report-we-all-have-work-to-do/">Bank of Canada’s</a> positive report on job growth over the past five years, <a href="http://closeesgap.ca/download/754/">many workers</a> remain involuntarily part-time or working fewer hours than they would like. Others are misclassified as self-employed or independent contractors. Still others are engaged in forms of paid work which elude clear categorization.</p>
<p>As the federal government indicated, more than <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6798760/canadas-march-jobs-report-coronavirus/">five million Canadians have applied</a> for emergency benefits since March 15, which suggests an unemployment figure of closer to 25 per cent. The full consequences of the current crisis for economically insecure workers are almost certainly not captured in the official count. </p>
<p>For instance, Canadian households are highly indebted. As of September 2019, <a href="https://business.financialpost.com/personal-finance/debt/canada-q3-household-debt-to-income-ratio-rises">average household debt to income</a> stood at 175.9 per cent. This means for every dollar of disposable income, Canadians owe about $1.76 in debt — a total that includes mortgages and credit cards debts.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327537/original/file-20200413-125133-w7f1m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327537/original/file-20200413-125133-w7f1m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327537/original/file-20200413-125133-w7f1m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327537/original/file-20200413-125133-w7f1m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327537/original/file-20200413-125133-w7f1m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327537/original/file-20200413-125133-w7f1m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327537/original/file-20200413-125133-w7f1m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Public health concerns over the coronavirus have led to the shutdown many workplaces, but Canada’s Employment Insurance needs to do more to help those workers who have lost their jobs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
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<p>A <a href="https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2019/07/Unaccommodating%20-%20Rental%20Wage%20in%20Canada.pdf">study released last summer by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives</a> demonstrates the growing gulf between wages and average rental costs in cities across the country. Perhaps most troubling, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4870779/canadians-financial-insolvency-2019-mnp-ipsos-poll/">polls from a year ago</a> found that 46 per cent of respondents were $200 or less away from financial insolvency at month’s end, and 31 per cent don’t earn enough to cover bills and debt payments. </p>
<p>At present, public health concerns dictate that many people remain away from work. But cuts and reforms to Canada’s Employment Insurance program undermine this objective. </p>
<h2>The erosion of Employment Insurance</h2>
<p>At its strongest in the 1970s when it covered over two-thirds of workers who experienced unemployment, EI has been <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/employment-insurance/a-short-history-of-ei-and-a-look-at-the-road-ahead/">drastically overhauled</a> over the past decades. <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/191114/t001a-eng.htm">Fewer than half</a> of unemployed workers now receive benefits. Onerous eligibility criteria and a low wage replacement rate of only 55 per cent up to a maximum of insurable earnings make the program both a shell of its former self and a laggard compared to <a href="https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=NRR">more generous unemployment insurance programs in Europe</a>. </p>
<p>In response to the inadequacy of EI, the federal government introduced the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/cerb-application.html">Canadian Emergency Response Benefit</a> (CERB). The CERB’s $500 weekly benefit will help some workers who do not qualify for EI, such as the self-employed and other freelance workers. </p>
<p>However, its impact is also limited by eligibility criteria that dictate workers must be without labour income or have not voluntarily quit their job because of COVID-19. This leaves out workers on reduced hours or whose bosses refuse to lay them off, as well as those who wish to leave unsafe working conditions. </p>
<h2>Putting workers at risk</h2>
<p><a href="https://nowtoronto.com/news/coronavirus-pandemic-workers-rights/">For many of those continuing to work</a>, workplace health and safety risks are considerable. A lack of <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-needs-to-reinstate-paid-sick-days-amid-covid-19-pandemic-health-care-workers-say-1.4851034">paid sick days</a> exacerbates these hazards. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/employers-need-to-give-paid-sick-days-to-fight-the-coronavirus-133601">Employers need to give paid sick days to fight the coronavirus</a>
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<p>In Ontario, Premier Doug Ford repealed many of the previous government’s reforms to the Employment Standards Act (ESA), <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/pc-government-to-pass-bill-to-freeze-minimum-wage-eliminate-paid-sick-days-1.4185507">including eliminating the right to paid sick days</a>. </p>
<p>The Conservative government has amended the ESA during the pandemic to allow <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/sick-leave">emergency leave</a> related to COVID-19. But because this leave is unpaid, the ability of low-wage workers to take it is limited. </p>
<p>The reforms made to unemployment benefits and employment standards over the past decades were designed to reduce regulations that protect workers on the faulty assumption that this would improve efficiency and enhance economic growth. The mistakes of this approach are all too apparent during a public health crisis when workers need financial support in order to stay away from work. </p>
<h2>Wage subsidies and a lack of worker power</h2>
<p>The Canadian government has further tried to solve the problem of getting money into people’s hands while they are away from work through a wage subsidy program. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327541/original/file-20200413-177903-920v0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327541/original/file-20200413-177903-920v0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327541/original/file-20200413-177903-920v0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327541/original/file-20200413-177903-920v0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327541/original/file-20200413-177903-920v0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327541/original/file-20200413-177903-920v0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327541/original/file-20200413-177903-920v0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Official jobless figures from Statistics Canada don’t reflect the true picture of the number of people who have been left jobless or underemployed because of the coronavirus pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/economic-response-plan/wage-subsidy.html">Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy</a> is aimed to encourage employers to retain or recall employees by providing 75 per cent of an employee’s pre-crisis wage, up to $847 per week for up to 12 weeks. In order to receive the subsidy, employers must demonstrate a 15 per cent drop in revenue for March 2020 and a 30 per cent drop for the following months. </p>
<p>The government has also introduced a process for refunding employer-paid contributions to EI and the Canada and Québec pension plans. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2020/03/30/making-the-covid19-wage-subsidy-program-work-better-for-workers/">total cost of the wage subsidy</a> could be as much as $80 billion over three months, more than the federal government’s total transfers to provinces for health care, social assistance and equalization payments for the whole year.</p>
<h2>Wage subsidies a gift for employers?</h2>
<p>The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives <a href="http://behindthenumbers.ca/2020/03/30/much-stronger-conditions-needed-on-federal-wage-subsidy-program/">projects that many employers will receive more through the program than they lose in revenue</a>. As such, the wage subsidy has become controversial because it could turn into a substantial gift to employers and potentially be repaid through cuts to social services in the future. </p>
<p>There are additional concerns that nothing is in place to ensure employers pay the remaining 25 per cent of workers’ wages, or that large employers aren’t able to take undue advantage of the program. </p>
<p>However, some in the <a href="https://canadianlabour.ca/canadas-unions-welcome-quick-passage-of-wage-subsidy-bill/">labour movement support a wage subsidy program</a> as a way to keep people in their jobs and reduce the long-term employment disruptions caused by the COVID-19 crisis.</p>
<p>In this vein, countries like <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/denmark-freezing-its-economy-should-us/608533/">Denmark have instituted more worker-friendly</a> versions of a wage subsidy. The difference is that Denmark has much greater <a href="https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=TUD">union coverage and a collective bargaining system</a> where unions and employer associations largely negotiate contracts at the industry level. More co-ordinated labour relations systems like this give unions much greater power to shape policy. </p>
<p>In Canada, where <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1410013201">private sector union density is just 16 per cent</a> and contracts are mostly work-site based, workers lack comparable institutional power. In this sense, more co-ordinated economies with robust labour regulations are better able to manage the employment and social consequences of the pandemic. </p>
<p>The COVID-19 crisis should encourage us to look seriously at ways to transform our system of labour law and social protection in order to empower working people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136110/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam D.K. King does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The difficulty governments have had in meeting the needs of Canadian workers impacted by the coronavirus crisis has exposed holes in our social safety net and the inadequacy of existing labour laws.Adam D.K. King, Post-Doctoral Visitor, Department of Politics, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1069582018-11-18T15:31:44Z2018-11-18T15:31:44ZIn defence of Statistics Canada’s request for financial data<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245886/original/file-20181115-194494-1bvaas1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canadians are up in arms about Statistics Canada's push for their financial data. They shouldn't be.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Statistics Canada’s proposal to collect a range of detailed financial data from 500,000 Canadians has certainly touched a nerve.</p>
<p>Many commentators argue this <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4612037/conservatives-blast-trudeau-government-over-statscan-collection-of-personal-financial-data/">invades privacy</a> and is overreach, while only a few brave pundits <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-why-statscan-should-have-access-to-our-banking-data/">defend the plan</a>. The tide of public opinion <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-canadians-strongly-oppose-statscans-plan-to-obtain-the-banking/">has turned</a> and our system of <a href="https://www.stat.ee/what-are-official-statistics-and-how-are-they-produced">official statistics</a> is under serious threat.</p>
<p>Three questions need answering. </p>
<p>First, why does Statistics Canada need financial transactions data? </p>
<p>Second, how does direct access to financial records make official statistics more reliable and efficient? </p>
<p>Third, are the financial data that Statistics Canada wishes to access all that different from the information already shared by the financial industry?</p>
<h2>The origins of the census</h2>
<p>To answer the first question, let’s go back to before Confederation. <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/dominion-bureau-of-statistics--the-products-9780773516601.php">Legislation</a> passed in 1847 specified the need for population counts and the collection of criminal statistics. It directed the government (at that time the <a href="http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_00925">Province of Canada</a>) to complete a census of population and to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“…institute inquiries and collect useful facts and statistics relating to the Agricultural, Mechanical and Manufacturing interests of the Province…to promote improvements in the Province and to encourage immigration from other Countries.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The present-day <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/S-19/page-1.html#h-2">Statistics Act</a> closely reflects the sentiments of this initial legislation.</p>
<p>Official statistics, comprising the census and other “useful facts and statistics,” serve both public and private purposes. </p>
<p>Public purposes include diverse activities like allocating government grants for arts and sports, calibration tax revenue models, planning major infrastructure and calculating key economic indicators such as the unemployment rate and consumer price index. </p>
<p>Private uses include special extracts from the census to target postal codes to locate boomers <a href="https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/pages/dm/whitepaper.page">or millennials</a> in direct mail campaigns. Population projections are basic to business planning. <a href="http://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/october-2018/the-role-of-statistics-canada-in-a-post-truth-world/">Elsewhere</a>, I have argued that reliable and valid official statistics are essential to combating fake news in our post-truth society.</p>
<p>In other words, official statistics are a public good serving Canadian society.</p>
<h2>‘Methodological innovations’</h2>
<p>Second, to understand why it’s important to have direct access to financial data, we need some context on the many methodological innovations that have maintained our official statistics as population grew and Canada expanded.</p>
<p>One notable innovation directly related to the current controversy was the Corporation and Labour Unions Returns Act of 1964 (<a href="http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getMainChange&Id=3210">CALURA</a>) that replaced business surveys with direct access to corporate tax returns. </p>
<p>In addition to eliminating response burden, such direct access to tax data improved response rates, accuracy and timeliness of reporting.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245891/original/file-20181115-194509-1ehx3ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245891/original/file-20181115-194509-1ehx3ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245891/original/file-20181115-194509-1ehx3ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245891/original/file-20181115-194509-1ehx3ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245891/original/file-20181115-194509-1ehx3ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245891/original/file-20181115-194509-1ehx3ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245891/original/file-20181115-194509-1ehx3ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scandinavians share lots of data, including financial information, and it’s replacing census surveys. Here’s the Danish Danske Bank, the largest in northern Europe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Direct access to administrative data is the future for official statistics, including the census, as the Scandinavian countries <a href="http://www.scb.se/BE0101-en#_Moreinformation">have demonstrated</a>. In those countries, administrative data such as tax files, health records and school enrolments are replacing census surveys — they are faster and more accurate.</p>
<p>Finally, what’s so special about accessing financial transactions? </p>
<p>Let’s be clear, arms dealers and drug cartels do not use credit unions. What Statistics Canada wants is the humdrum of everyday existence. Payments for groceries, rent, utilities and online shopping and other routine financial transactions data will supplement and perhaps eventually replace the Survey of Household Spending (SHS), an expenditure diary maintained by a small random sample of Canadians. </p>
<p>Market researchers have long experienced falling response rates in their private surveys, but now official surveys are encountering it, and policy-makers <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2018/05/24/plunging-response-rates-to-household-surveys-worry-policymakers">are worried</a>.</p>
<p>The household survey underpins the consumer price index, a core economic indicator needed to set interest rates and to index many types of public and private payments. Household expenditure data also forms a basis for the proposed market basket measure of poverty. Quite simply, these are data we need to get right to support public policy.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-promise-and-problems-of-including-big-data-in-official-government-statistics-106440">The promise and problems of including 'big data' in official government statistics</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Banks routinely share customer data. Those zippy ads showing millennials using an app to check their credit scores fail to mention that these scores rely on financial institutions sharing customer information with Equifax and other clearing houses. </p>
<p>Statistics Canada also collects our income data directly from Canada Revenue Agency for the census and without our <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/ref/98-304/chap5-eng.cfm#a1">prior consent.</a></p>
<h2>Why all the turmoil?</h2>
<p>So why the turmoil over this latest proposal? Three reasons appear plausible.</p>
<p>First, in the face of regular data lapses like the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/household-finances/the-latest-what-you-need-to-know-after-the-equifax-security-breach/article36323162/">Equifax breach</a> of 2017 and the recent massive <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-security-breach-50-million-accounts/">cyber-attack</a> on Facebook, Canadians are justifiably skeptical about any promise their data are secure within any system.</p>
<p>Second, management at Statistics Canada, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4624369/statistics-canada-financial-data-scooping/">despite claims</a> of extensive consultations with the financial industry and the privacy commissioner, seems to have forgotten what sales people call the “<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/valueproposition.asp">value proposition</a>.” </p>
<p>Why does Statistics Canada need such access? Who will benefit? This has not been made clear even in <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4644041/statistics-canada-failed-to-disclose-key-info-about-project-to-harvest-bank-data/">the request</a> StatsCan sent to banks.</p>
<p>Finally, the initiative appears to be driven by government, creating for some <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/statcan-s-plan-to-harvest-canadians-private-banking-info-on-hold-1.4169020">ominous Big Brother overtones</a>.</p>
<p>So where do we go from here?</p>
<p>First, Statistics Canada needs to press “pause” and develop a more fulsome rationale for accessing this information. It is politically tone-deaf to point to recent changes to the Statistics Act that allows Statistics Canada to compel such access.</p>
<p>With the banks now threatening legal action, continued doubling down threatens public trust in our official statistics. Most Canadians do not understand how Statistics Canada supports public policy or private business. </p>
<h2>Benefits need to be explained</h2>
<p>Specifically, it needs to show why accessing financial transactions data will improve the reliability and timeliness of its information and what benefits will result from such access. It also needs to go beyond assertion and demonstrate the highest level of data security.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245893/original/file-20181115-194516-d80m9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245893/original/file-20181115-194516-d80m9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245893/original/file-20181115-194516-d80m9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245893/original/file-20181115-194516-d80m9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245893/original/file-20181115-194516-d80m9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245893/original/file-20181115-194516-d80m9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245893/original/file-20181115-194516-d80m9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Statistics Canada reports to Navdeep Bains, a government minister. Instead, it should report to Parliament.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This issue is now partisan, partly because Statistics Canada is an agency of government. The chief statistician reports to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. </p>
<p>If the chief statistician were to report to Parliament in the same way as the auditor general, then such requests could have broader political support. </p>
<p>Both policy lobbyists and industry benefit from a robust system of official statistics, and it’s Parliament that offers a superior oversight capacity from a less partisan vantage.</p>
<p>Official statistics are a public good, benefiting all sectors of society. Their most important role is grounding intelligent public policy with facts. </p>
<p>Statistics Canada needs to be able maintain the pace of innovation in collecting and publishing data by accessing timely information on Canadian society. However, this must rest on clear and effective policies to manage privacy and secure data. Having StatsCan report to Parliament and not a government minister may help. </p>
<p>Hopefully, Statistics Canada can salvage this proposal quickly without further damage being done to our system of official statistics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106958/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory C Mason receives funding from Thorlackson Foundation for research into telemedicine and electronic medical records. Eight years ago, he served as a consultant to the Alberta government to review its official population list and revise its Municipal Census Manual.</span></em></p>Statistics Canada has been tone-deaf in its push for the financial data of Canadians from banks, but that data is essential to forming good public policy.Gregory C Mason, Associate Professor of Economics, University of ManitobaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/807942017-10-25T22:48:18Z2017-10-25T22:48:18ZBecoming Indigenous: The rise of Eastern Métis in Canada<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191910/original/file-20171025-25573-rcxw37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Métis Family and a Red River Cart, 1883. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.digitalhorizonsonline.org/digital/collection/uw-ndshs/id/3298">(State Historical Society of North Dakota, A4365)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the early 2000s, there has been a meteoric rise in the number of people self-identifying as Métis in Eastern Canada. <a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/171025/dq171025a-eng.htm">New census data</a> shows the highest increases in self-reported “Métis” people between 2006 and 2016 were in Québec (149.2 per cent) and in Nova Scotia (124.3 per cent). In Canada during the same period, the increase was less than 60 per cent.</p>
<p>Rather than a spike in birth rates, almost all of the increase is due to white Franco-Québécois and Acadian settlers “becoming” Indigenous. To go along with these numbers, nearly 30 “Métis” organizations were founded in both provinces during roughly the same period. <em>(For the purpose of this article, we use quotes for those claiming to be Métis to differentiate them from those connected to the Métis Nation.)</em> Newly established “Métis” communities are stylizing themselves as the authentic inheritors of Indigenous nationhood, claiming that for many generations their ancestors were “hidden in plain sight.” </p>
<p>These practices are associated with what we call settler self-indigenization, or the tactical use of long-ago ancestors to reimagine a “Métis” identity. This practice disregards the development of Métis peoplehood out West. These “new Métis” often find legitimacy because of settler confusion over forms of Indigeneity based on kinship and belonging. </p>
<p><iframe id="SHu2j" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/SHu2j/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>We recently analyzed two organizations that reflect French-specific claims to Indigeneity: the Bras d’Or Lake Métis Nation (BDLMN), based in Cape Breton, and the Métis Nation of the Rising Sun (MNRS), based in Gaspésie. </p>
<p>These two groups, like several others we have studied, claim descent from an array of Indigenous peoples, and they often stylize themselves as the inheritors of the most authentic forms of Indigeneity. Ironically, they see themselves as more authentic than the still-living Indigenous communities from which they claim descent. </p>
<p>Together, these organizations claim to represent nearly 20,000 people and are currently involved in legal efforts to have their members recognized as Aboriginal people under the Constitution Act, 1982. These efforts, however, find concerted opposition from leaders of the Métis Nation, an Indigenous people of the prairies, and regional <a href="http://www.danielnpaul.com/Col/2005/SamuelDeChamplain-Mi'kmaqGreeting.html">Mi'kmaw populations</a>. </p>
<h2>The Métis people</h2>
<p>Métis have typically been misrecognized as mixed-descent, mixed-“race” identity, rather than a political and historically coherent Indigenous people, says Chris Andersen in his <a href="http://www.ubcpress.ca/metis">book, “Métis”</a>. Canada has long resisted recognizing the Métis Nation as a self-governing Indigenous nation that <a href="http://graphichistorycollective.com/project/poster-8-batoche-1885-canada-opened-fire-kokum-marianne-gatling-gun">predates</a> the formation of Canada. </p>
<p>The major problem with using a mixed-raced understanding of “Métis” is that it finds “Métis” everywhere and in so doing denies the more explicit peoplehood of the Métis Nation. Andersen argues Métis people should be recognized as those who belong to the Métis Nation.</p>
<p>While it is true in the early days of New France some colonists formed alliances and or intermarried with some Indigenous peoples, these relations did not give rise to distinct peoples.</p>
<p>Respecting how Indigenous communities understood themselves historically and continue to identify in the present is of the utmost importance as a matter of Indigenous self-determination.</p>
<h2>Contributors to the Canadian colonial project</h2>
<p>A common theme that emerges from our research is that Eastern Métis organizations are deeply invested in the settler status quo, despite bold claims about their “Indigeneity.” </p>
<p>For example, the BDLMN locates its origins in the inland fur trade, with its voyageur heritage, while also erasing the historical presence of Indigenous nations. The BDLMN says its ancestors “play[ed] an integral part in forging and forming Canada” by “exploring uncharted lands for the purpose of… being recognized by the British Crown.” </p>
<p>As major contributors to the Canadian colonial project, these explorers helped Canada open up lands that were unknown, undiscovered and open to appropriation by Acadian “Métis” voyageurs. The prior control and governance of these lands by Indigenous peoples — many of whom they claim as ancestors — rarely factor into these narratives.</p>
<p>BDLMN members also connect their legitimacy as Canadians by highlighting their standing as “taxpayers” and placing themselves in opposition to the Indigenous Mi’kmaq thirteen member assembly of Nova Scotia, who are questioned, apparently because they don’t pay taxes. </p>
<p>For example, the BDLMN “chief” disparages the 13-member Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs, who question “Maritime Métis” motives: “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=608167885885637&id=575266769175749">So what we have here … are 13 chiefs who do not vote, don’t pay taxes</a>, receive millions from the taxpayer, telling government how to run the province dictating Aboriginal Métis rights, [for Métis] who do vote and who do pay taxes.” </p>
<p>The BDLMN constructs its members as taxpaying and voting Canadian citizens whose claims to Aboriginal rights are more robust than those of the Mi’kmaq. </p>
<p>Their strategy for political recognition actively undermines Mi’kmaw sovereignty and self-determination by appealing to colonial discourses circulating in Canadian society about Indigenous life — in this case, that the Mi’kmaq don’t contribute to society and ultimately work against their more legitimate “Métis” rights.</p>
<h2>Audacious political claims</h2>
<p>Nearly a thousand kilometres to the west along the Trans-Canada Highway in Gaspésie we find the headquarters of the <a href="http://www.metisgaspesie.com/indexFr.php?langue=EN">Métis Nation of the Rising Sun (MNRS)</a>, the organization representing the largest number of “Eastern Métis” individuals (about 16,000 as of April 2017). </p>
<p>The NMSL has a tendency to portray its members as the only authentic Indigenous people in “their” territory. For example, the NMSL made several audacious historical claims in a public document that it prepared for a government commission in 2007. </p>
<p>It asserted the Quebecois “Métis” are the only remaining Indigenous people in Quebec: “We present this document to you as the only direct descendants of Québec’s First Peoples whose members were not all killed by microbial shock. We stand as witnesses to the errors of Official History, which teach us that there are Métis and Indians while there is only one Indigenous Nation in Quebec.” </p>
<p>In this case, the Quebecois “Métis” construct themselves as withstanding biological elimination due in large part to their European lineage, which offered them immunity to disease. </p>
<p>The organization’s statement to government continues: “Your creation of reserves, which began in 1831–32, forced only the most miserable among us to live there…[We] refused to die on ‘your’ reserves…We remained free due to [our] inhuman efforts. Diseases that came from Europe…killed the [Indigenous] half of ourselves. Only the descendants mixed with Europeans survived these plagues.”</p>
<p>For the MNRS, whose membership more than doubled in 2016 following the SCC’s <a href="https://www.firstpeopleslaw.com/index/articles/248.php">Daniels Supreme Court decision</a> (which many “Eastern Métis claim recognizes their rights, when it is actually a question of federal/provincial jurisdiction over Métis matters). Their authenticity as "Métis” comes from the fact that they lay in hiding as French settlers for over two centuries.</p>
<h2>Race-shifting</h2>
<p>While the material we examine is quite specific to French settler politics and history, other scholars have highlighted similar tendencies among white settler peoples. </p>
<p>Most analogous is the self-identified Cherokee phenomenon in the United States, a situation that has reached epidemic proportions — only a third of those who claim a Cherokee identity are enrolled in one of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes. </p>
<p>In 2011 there were over 250 self-identified Cherokee “tribes” in the U.S., according to anthropologist <a href="https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/anthropology/faculty/sturmcd">Circe Sturm</a>. Like efforts by self-identified Métis, Sturm suggests that “race shifting” among white Americans to Cherokee identity is an attempt to “reclaim or create something they feel they have lost, and … to opt out of mainstream white society.” </p>
<p>The end result, however, has been the proliferation of self-identified Cherokee “tribes” in the U.S. and “Métis commmunities” in Eastern Canada with minimal connections to Indigenous peoples who they claim as long-ago ancestors. </p>
<p>In both cases, settler self-indigenization relies on a remarkable story: That these new communities are more Indigenous than actual Indigenous people. These stories erase actual Indigenous communities by denying them the ability to determine their own membership and narrate their own histories.</p>
<p>There’s also a more immediate problem, given that the Aboriginal Peoples Survey public policy instrument, if governments take this trend at face value, it could diminish the already inadequate public policy resources directed to Indigenous communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80794/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New census data sheds light on the country’s Indigenous population. In Eastern Canada, the rise in people claiming to be “Métis” is a controversial case of “settler self-indigenization.”Darryl R. J. Leroux, Associate Professor, Department of Social Justice and Community Studies, Saint Mary’s UniversityAdam Gaudry, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Native Studies and Department of Political Science , University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/848912017-10-25T22:48:14Z2017-10-25T22:48:14ZClosing the immigrant wage gap: Is speaking English important?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191700/original/file-20171024-30556-yo1lpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=425%2C112%2C3985%2C3081&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New census data gives insight into Canada's immigrant population, including how English language proficiency can impact wages. Here, a group of new Canadians take part in a citizenship ceremony in Ottawa in September.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Statistics Canada has released <a href="http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/98-200-x/2016017/98-200-x2016017-eng.cfm">new data</a> from the 2016 census that shows more than any other G8 country, Canada is a nation of immigrants. One in five Canadians (21.9 per cent to be exact) were born in another country.</p>
<p>Immigration is a significant component of Canada’s population growth and evolving demographic composition. The census data shows more than 1.2 million new immigrants came to Canada between 2011-16. Immigrants are also typically younger and more educated than the average Canadian.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly then, immigration is often touted as a necessary condition for <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/2016/10/06/increased-immigration-urged-to-support-economic-growth-amid-aging-population.html">sustained economic prosperity</a>. And yet in spite of their ostensible importance to the Canadian economy, immigrants themselves have yet to catch up to other Canadians in terms of economic outcomes.</p>
<p>Economists refer to this catching up as “economic assimilation” and often measure it using the “native-immigrant wage gap” — the difference between the average wages of immigrants and those whose families have been here at least three generations. The persistence of this wage gap is a feature common to economies in the Western world that rely heavily on immigration.</p>
<p>As an economist and a child of immigrants myself, I was curious to delve into the census data to understand how this gap has evolved over time and across major cities in Canada — and to get a hint of what may be at the root of it. </p>
<p>The first thing that surprised me is the gap has not changed much over the past 10 years. Census data from 2006 showed, at a national level, first-generation immigrants earned wages 12.6 per cent less than the average wage of native Canadians. In 2011, the gap dropped slightly to 10 per cent, but the new census data shows it’s climbed significantly to 16 per cent.</p>
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<p>Importantly, the gap is a countrywide phenomenon. Looking at the three of the most popular destinations for immigrants in the past decade — Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary — the gap in 2016 sits at 25, 17 and 23 per cent respectively.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the gap doesn’t only exist for first-generation immigrants, but also for the children of immigrants (second generation, i.e. Canadians born to immigrant parents). The new data shows at the national level, second-generation immigrants earn 5.4 per cent less than natives. </p>
<h2>Understanding the wage gap</h2>
<p>The obvious question that follows then is: What is the source of these gaps? </p>
<p>Canada is an especially interesting case given the <a href="http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/express-entry/grid-crs.asp">“points” system</a> used to screen potential immigrants, where language, education and job skills are key determinants. And for the first time, the census has reported that about six out 10 new immigrants came here under the so-called economic admission category, meaning they have the skills “to enhance and promote economic development.”</p>
<p>Given the way immigrants are screened before entry, one would expect relatively quick integration into the Canadian economy and a convergence in wages. But this is clearly not the case.</p>
<p>The reasons put forward to explain the wage gap range from employer difficulty in assessing immigrant education credentials to outright discrimination. Economists refer to two types of “discrimination” in the labour market context, “<a href="http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2009_S000544">statistical discrimination</a>” and “<a href="http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2009_T000251">taste-based discrimination</a>.”</p>
<p>In the former, employers use observable traits (such as race) to make inferences about something like productivity. For example, an employer sees a job applicant with brown skin. The employer isn’t prejudiced towards brown people, but is worried (stereotypically) the employee is going to want to take trips “home” to Sri Lanka and would need a lot of vacation time. So the employer hires someone else equally qualified. Taste-based discrimination is more what we think of as prejudice — not wanting to hire someone purely because of skin colour.</p>
<p>Identifying causal factors that explain the wage gap is a difficult task - individuals who immigrate to Canada do so by choice. These choices are a function of a host of factors that could potentially jointly explain the decision to immigrate and labour market outcomes, including personal characteristics, job experience and education, to name just a few. Identifying discrimination in the labour market, and separating between taste-based and statistical discrimination, is even harder.</p>
<p>However, a 2011 <a href="http://oreopoulos.faculty.economics.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Why-Do-Skilled-Immigrants-Struggle-in-the-Labor-Market.pdf">study by University of Toronto economist Phil Oreopolous</a> takes an important step in this direction.</p>
<p>In the study, thousands of computer-generated resumes were mailed out to companies that had posted ads searching for employees. The resumes were randomly assigned either a foreign or a “white” sounding last name, and were otherwise identical. The result: The resumes where the applicant had a foreign-sounding last name were less likely to receive a call back than identical looking resumes with a “white” last name.</p>
<p>When the author followed up with some of the recruiters, the overwhelming reason given for overlooking resumes with a foreign-sounding name was that they anticipated difficulty with language. Specifically, recruiters expected a lack of fluency in English, problems with communicating at work and difficulty for customers and co-workers in understanding a foreign accent. In other words, recruiters were statistically discriminating between job candidates based on their names.</p>
<h2>Can language proficiency close the gap?</h2>
<p>The census presents an opportunity to study the importance of English proficiency for the gap in labour market earnings between immigrants and native Canadians in 2016. The census provides information on wages, immigrant (and generation) status, as well as the language most commonly spoken at home. </p>
<p>Specifically, guided by the findings in Oreopolous’s study, I looked at how the gap in average wages changes when English is spoken at home. (For the purpose of this study, I looked at communities outside of Quebec, where French is the dominant language.) In 2016, 63 per cent of new immigrants living outside of Quebec most often spoke a language other than English or French while at home.</p>
<p>The latest census data says the native-first generation immigrant wage gap is 16 per cent at the national level. Once we examine whether immigrants speak English at home, things change — the wage difference is just 5.8 per cent. But for first-generation immigrants who don’t speak English at home, the gap jumps to 27.3 per cent.</p>
<p>For second-generation immigrants, there is barely any gap for those who speak English at home (0.7 per cent) but it’s still a significant gap for those who don’t speak English at home (a whopping 45.7 per cent).</p>
<p>This pattern also holds in the major metropolitan centres in the English-speaking parts of the country, which attract the most immigrants. </p>
<p>Interestingly, at almost 25 per cent, Toronto has one of the largest city level wage gaps in the country, explained at least in part by the fact that new immigrants tend to land in Toronto first and are more likely to be unemployed for a period of time. The three largest cities in English-speaking Canada, which also attract the most immigrants, also have gaps larger than the national average.</p>
<p>In Ottawa, immigrants of either generation who speak English at home actually earn more than natives on average. While it may be tempting to attribute the major differences across the cities to differences in culture, they are more likely due to regional differences in industrial composition and attendant labour demand. </p>
<p>The wage gap for immigrants who don’t speak English at home is very large. In Toronto and Calgary, first-generation immigrants who don’t speak English at home can expect to earn 37 per cent less than natives. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that the gap across all cities for is larger for second generation immigrants who don’t speak English at home. </p>
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<p>Though these patterns are striking, they should not be interpreted as causal – immigrants can’t necessarily start speaking English at home and expect to see their future earnings increase. There are unobserved qualities of individuals that may correlate both with the tendency to speak English at home as well as with labour market earnings potential. Without holding these fixed in some way, we can’t say whether there is a causal relationship between English skills and the gap in labour market outcomes. </p>
<p>But supposing that the findings here are suggestive of a causal relationship, why does speaking English at home matter so much?</p>
<p>One obvious answer is that individuals who speak English at home speak better English in general — and this would mean better communication at work. This would be consistent with the worries that the recruiters in Oreopolous’s study had when deciding who to call back. Or perhaps individuals of foreign descent that speak English at home tend to have other important skills on average.</p>
<p>But another possibility is the labour market discriminates against individuals with weaker English skills even when English is not important for productivity. Sorting between these different explanations (and others) will require more data and a deeper look.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84891/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arvind Magesan receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).</span></em></p>New census data provides a chance to understand why immigrants earn lower wages than Canadians who have been here for many generations. Whether immigrants speak English at home may be a clue.Arvind Magesan, Associate Professor of Economics, University of CalgaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.