The nature of work in Canada is changing. With the onset of the so-called “fourth industrial revolution” careers are becoming a patchwork of impermanent contracts and “gigs,” which often do not come with the benefits associated with long-term employment. Canada’s social architecture, including employment insurance, may no longer be responding adequately to the nonstandard work so many Canadians are being forced to accept.

In this podcast you can listen to the panel discussion recently hosted by Policy Options on the implications of precarious work for Canadians and decision-makers. Francis Fong of Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, Sunil Johal of the University of Toronto’s Mowat Centre and Wendy Vuyk of the Ontario Centre for Workforce Innovation joined Policy Options Editor-in -Chief Jennifer Ditchburn to broach this key policy issue.

Download for free. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP.

Read Francis Fong’s Policy Options article on precarious work.

Check out the Policy Options special feature “Inclusive Growth in an Age of Disruption”.

Download for free. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP.

Francis Fong
Francis Fong is chief economist at the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada. His research focuses on economic and public policy issues, including retirement income security, immigration, the labour market, and youth unemployment. He was senior economist and director of economic risk at TD Economics.
Sunil Johal
Sunil Johal serves as a fellow to the Public Policy Forum and the Brookfield Institute. From 2012 to 2019 he was policy director at the University of Toronto’s Mowat Centre. In 2019, he was named chair of the Expert Panel on Modern Labour Standards by the federal Minister of Labour.
Wendy Vuyk
Wendy Vuyk is the regional coordinator of the Eastern Region at the Ontario Centre for Workforce Innovation.
Jennifer Ditchburn
Jennifer Ditchburn is the President and CEO of the Institute for Research on Public Policy. From 2016 to 2021, she was the Editor-in-Chief of the IRPP’s influential digital magazine, Policy Options. Prior to joining the IRPP, Jennifer spent two decades covering national and parliamentary affairs for The Canadian Press and for CBC Television. She is the co-editor with Graham Fox of The Harper Factor: Assessing a Prime Minister’s Policy Legacy (McGill-Queen’s).