Executive Summary of The Great Jobs Agenda:

(to get a more detailed perspective on the Great Jobs Agenda click here to access our last Pre-Budget submission)

With global competition, a rising Canadian dollar, rising energy prices and technological innovation, these are complex and contentious times. And yet there is a common goal amidst much of the debate about our economy – the desire for great jobs, the bridge between individual prosperity and economic vitality.  As such, it is time we had an agenda that put great jobs front and centre: 

Mindset (attitude is key)

Adopt a ‘creative capital mindset’ – one that judges all economic policies against the basic standard of whether they are empowering each individual to obtain employment that fully taps into their creative potential.

An Environment Where Business Can Thrive

If the goal of the Great Jobs Agenda is to provide people with jobs that are well-paying, meaningful and tap into their talents, then we need an environment that enables businesses to create/maintain those jobs.

Nurture Skills/Recognize Skills

None of the items we propose for the skills strategy (lifelong learning, the importance of skills acquisition from the most basic to the most sophisticated, skills recognition, etc) are new. Indeed, great strides have been accomplished in relation to many of them. The key call for change is twofold: 

- that these strategies receive an even greater focus from government, business, labour and the public as part of a Great Jobs Agenda; and

- as such, every single initiative must be evaluated against the standard of whether the skills of the individual involved have been enhanced in a way that leads to engaging and financially rewarding employment.

Identify & Remove Roadblocks for Those on Low-income

For starters, engage in effective tax relief for low-income tax payers.

Trumpet Success 

Collectively we must do a better job of sharing business and government success stories in a way that both inspires and instructs.   

Obey the Law

Laws that are not enforced serve no purpose other than to permit victimization of workers and to penalize law-abiding employers.

Broaden Knowledge of the Law

The first step to an effective regulatory system is knowledge as to its existence.

All Together      

The most important aspect of the Great Jobs Agenda is that government, business and labour agree to work on it together.