TORONTO —
The COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly hard on Canadian youth and questions have arisen about how long it will take for them to recover economically, and what that will look like post-pandemic.
Unemployment for youth was as high as 30 per cent in May 2020, but came down to 10.5 per cent by December 2020, according to Statistics Canada.
The ISC report stated that those Canadian populations were being “left behind” in the recovery process as they are “overrepresented in the retail and tourism sectors” which were among the most severely hit in the pandemic, decimated in lockdowns and stay-at-home orders nationwide.
It’s an assessment that Scott Terrio, a consumer insolvency manager at Hoyes, Michalos & Associates Licensed Insolvency Trustees based in Ontario, agrees with.
“I’ve been meeting with people for 10 months now whose jobs were just basically vaporized in March and…people in their twenties are in industries that have just been crushed…they’ve probably paid a bigger price than almost any other demographic,” Terrio said in a telephone interview with CTVNews.ca Wednesday.
That sentiment was echoed by Katherine Scott, a senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ national office in Ottawa, in a telephone interview with CTVNews.ca Wednesday.
“In December, where we would normally see an uptick in employment related to the holiday season, we saw a significant drop in youth employment,” Scott said.
“One of the statistics that sort of struck me from last month’s labour force survey was there were almost 250,000 fewer young people employed compared to December 2019. That’s significant – and within this group, there were huge employment losses amongst young women as well as compared to young men,” she said.
The next labour force survey is slated for release Friday, Feb. 5, which Scott described as “probably grim.”
In the earlier stages of the pandemic last spring, Terrio said Canadians were phoning his firm “in a panic” and that many “fell back on resorting to consumer debt to make ends meet,” painting a bleak picture of what many youth are experiencing.
“Not only are they unemployed, but they’re racking up debt in the background, because let’s face it, a CERB cheque doesn’t cover your rent in a city like Toronto, you still have living expenses…a lot of people are now coming out of this with an inordinate amount of debt, whether it’s credit cards or lines of credit,” he said.
Terrio also flagged the confusion around Canada Emergency Response Benefit payments, noting that “on top of everything else” CERB “was paid in gross dollars, not net, and most people don’t speak that language.”
CERB payments being made in gross dollars mean they’re taxable, Terrio explained.
“People who are borrowing on their credit just to live and whose job prospects basically aren’t there for the foreseeable future are not going to be able to pay a $2,000 or more tax bill when it comes time,” Terrio said.
“Tax season is coming, and you can bet the CRA is going to try and help the government balance the books.”
For young people in post-secondary education, the already daunting task of paying back looming student loans is compounded by loss of income and lack of job prospects.
In October, the federal government resumed collecting payments and charging interest for the approximately one million Canada Student Loans borrowers after a grace period of six months.
In 2018 to 2019 alone, there were more than 356,000 Canadian Student Loans borrowers in default.
“Increasingly students today carry much higher debt loads and they carry that forward [for years]. That kind of debt load or those constraints on anyone, whether they have low income or not, is a huge barrier to making positive advances in a way that wasn’t the situation 20 or 30 years ago,” Scott said.
All the factors facing Canadian youth combined allow for Terrio to estimate it would take “at least five years” for youths to recover economically from the pandemic, but it could be a decade before any real progress is made.
“I can easily see it being 10, because 10 years goes by fast. I think a lot of people will take issue with that number – but if you do my job long enough and deal with people who are in normal debt situations, this is abnormal,” he said.
Scott says she’s thinking of two factors when examining the lens of long-term recovery – drawing on the example of the 2008 crash and the lessons learned in another recession that was “scarring.”
“One is obviously the challenge that is happening right now in terms of the labour market, lack of employment rates, but the other thing is — this type this recession, this time around, it’s lopping off the bottom end of the labour market,” she said.
“Youth need to be an explicit focus in our recovery planning.”
For Terrio, thinking long-term for economic recovery for youth means coming up with strategies for a labour force realizing that shuttered industries wont “magically” be able to rehire all the employees they had to cut.
“I can’t see employment rolling back out evenly, in any kind of quick way, because there’s going to be a lot of businesses not there anymore,” he said.
Terrio said economic recovery for youth won’t have a chance until COVID-19 vaccinations are well established, allowing things to open back up for both businesses and consumers alike.
“They’ve got to get the vaccinations underway because I think this is about consumer confidence. People want to spend,” he said.
Scott says that conceptually, Canadians and the government need to realize “we’re firmly in the middle of it [the pandemic]. We haven’t really got the recovery yet, we’re still in the emergency phase and we’re not focusing on who needs to be centred,” she said.
“I think we have to be very explicit about centering the economic needs of young people, and that includes young people that won’t be involved in post-secondary because…those with lower levels of education face even more barriers,” she said. “We have to look at the tools we have, we have to look at the affordability of post-secondary school, as well as a good jobs strategy, and we need to be thinking about the quality of jobs on offer.”
Scott said the federal government’s summer jobs program as well as any provincial youth employment schemes need to be extended in light of the pandemic.
This economic shutdown is also an opportunity to re-evaluate the income rates needed for youth to pay off their debts, pandemic-related or otherwise, Terrio said.
“I just can’t see how a person in their twenties who’s racked up a bunch of consumer debt through the pandemic, plus taxes and their jobs not necessarily coming back…they’ve got student debt, how do you pay all that back within 10 years? You just don’t have the income power to do it,” Terrio said.
“Income is always the issue – debt is the problem, yes, but the reason people get debt is because they don’t have enough income and the cost of living is insane,” he explained, adding that he thinks the way the inflation basket is measured is “kind of a joke.”
“I meet with people every day who’ve had twenty or thirty thousand dollars’ worth of debt and they’ve been dragging it around for years,” he said. “I don’t know anyone whose income has gone up tenfold.”
Those on the younger end of the youth scale, measured by Statistics Canada as those aged 15 to 29, who represent “Generation Z,” will be entering into an unprecedented corporate landscape when they graduate, Terrio said.
“If I’m in high school right now, I’m going ‘how can I “pandemic-proof” myself?’” he said. “What do I study, what do I go into that wont get affected by this? What if the next 10 years this just keeps happening over and over with different strains?”
Netflix on Thursday reported that its subscriber growth slowed dramatically during the summer, a sign the huge gains from the video-streaming service’s crackdown on freeloading viewers is tapering off.
The 5.1 million subscribers that Netflix added during the July-September period represented a 42% decline from the total gained during the same time last year. Even so, the company’s revenue and profit rose at a faster pace than analysts had projected, according to FactSet Research.
Netflix ended September with 282.7 million worldwide subscribers — far more than any other streaming service.
The Los Gatos, California, company earned $2.36 billion, or $5.40 per share, a 41% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 15% from a year ago to $9.82 billion. Netflix management predicted the company’s revenue will rise at the same 15% year-over-year pace during the October-December period, slightly than better than analysts have been expecting.
The strong financial performance in the past quarter coupled with the upbeat forecast eclipsed any worries about slowing subscriber growth. Netflix’s stock price surged nearly 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out, building upon a more than 40% increase in the company’s shares so far this year.
The past quarter’s subscriber gains were the lowest posted in any three-month period since the beginning of last year. That drop-off indicates Netflix is shifting to a new phase after reaping the benefits from a ban on the once-rampant practice of sharing account passwords that enabled an estimated 100 million people watch its popular service without paying for it.
The crackdown, triggered by a rare loss of subscribers coming out of the pandemic in 2022, helped Netflix add 57 million subscribers from June 2022 through this June — an average of more than 7 million per quarter, while many of its industry rivals have been struggling as households curbed their discretionary spending.
Netflix’s gains also were propelled by a low-priced version of its service that included commercials for the first time in its history. The company still is only getting a small fraction of its revenue from the 2-year-old advertising push, but Netflix is intensifying its focus on that segment of its business to help boost its profits.
In a letter to shareholder, Netflix reiterated previous cautionary notes about its expansion into advertising, though the low-priced option including commercials has become its fastest growing segment.
“We have much more work to do improving our offering for advertisers, which will be a priority over the next few years,” Netflix management wrote in the letter.
As part of its evolution, Netflix has been increasingly supplementing its lineup of scripted TV series and movies with live programming, such as a Labor Day spectacle featuring renowned glutton Joey Chestnut setting a world record for gorging on hot dogs in a showdown with his longtime nemesis Takeru Kobayashi.
Netflix will be trying to attract more viewer during the current quarter with a Nov. 15 fight pitting former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson against Jake Paul, a YouTube sensation turned boxer, and two National Football League games on Christmas Day.
REGINA – Saskatchewan’s provincial election is on Oct. 28. Here’s a look at some of the campaign promises made by the two major parties:
Saskatchewan Party
— Continue withholding federal carbon levy payments to Ottawa on natural gas until the end of 2025.
— Reduce personal income tax rates over four years; a family of four would save $3,400.
— Double the Active Families Benefit to $300 per child per year and the benefit for children with disabilities to $400 a year.
— Direct all school divisions to ban “biological boys” from girls’ change rooms in schools.
— Increase the First-Time Homebuyers Tax Credit to $15,000 from $10,000.
— Reintroduce the Home Renovation Tax Credit, allowing homeowners to claim up to $4,000 in renovation costs on their income taxes; seniors could claim up to $5,000.
— Extend coverage for insulin pumps and diabetes supplies to seniors and young adults
— Provide a 50 per cent refundable tax credit — up to $10,000 — to help cover the cost of a first fertility treatment.
— Hire 100 new municipal officers and 70 more officers with the Saskatchewan Marshals Service.
— Amend legislation to provide police with more authority to address intoxication, vandalism and disturbances on public property.
— Platform cost of $1.2 billion, with deficits in the first three years and a small surplus in 2027.
—
NDP
— Pause the 15-cent-a-litre gas tax for six months, saving an average family about $350.
— Remove the provincial sales tax from children’s clothes and ready-to-eat grocery items like rotisserie chickens and granola bars.
— Pass legislation to limit how often and how much landlords can raise rent.
— Repeal the law that requires parental consent when children under 16 want to change their names or pronouns at school.
— Launch a provincewide school nutrition program.
— Build more schools and reduce classroom sizes.
— Hire 800 front-line health-care workers in areas most in need.
— Launch an accountability commission to investigate cost overruns for government projects.
— Scrap the marshals service.
— Hire 100 Mounties and expand detox services.
— Platform cost of $3.5 billion, with small deficits in the first three years and a small surplus in the fourth year.
—
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct .17, 2024.
VANCOUVER – More than a million British Columbians have already cast their provincial election ballots, smashing the advance voting record ahead of what weather forecasters say will be a rain-drenched election day in much of B.C., with snow also predicted for the north.
Elections BC said Thursday that 1,001,331 people had cast ballots in six days of advance voting, easily breaking a record set during the pandemic election four years ago.
More than 28 per cent of all registered electors have voted, potentially putting the province on track for a big final turnout on Saturday.
“It reflects what I believe, which is this election is critically important for the future of our province,” New Democrat Leader David Eby said Thursday at a news conference in Vancouver. “I understand why British Columbians are out in numbers. We haven’t seen questions like this on the ballot in a generation.”
He said voters are faced with the choice of supporting his party’s plans to improve affordability, public health care and education, while the B.C. Conservatives, led by John Rustad, are proposing to cut services and are fielding candidates who support conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and espouse racist views.
Rustad held no public availabilities on Thursday.
Elections BC said the record advance vote tally includes about 223,000 people who voted on the final day of advance voting Wednesday, the last day of advance polls, shattering the one-day record set on Tuesday by more than 40,000 votes.
The previous record for advance voting in a B.C. election was set in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when about 670,000 people voted early, representing about 19 per cent of registered voters.
Some ridings have now seen turnout of more than 35 per cent, including in NDP Leader David Eby’s Vancouver-Point Grey riding where 36.5 per cent of all electors have voted.
There has also been big turnout in some Vancouver Island ridings, including Oak Bay-Gordon Head, where 39 per cent of electors have voted, and Victoria-Beacon Hill, where Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau is running, with 37.2 per cent.
Advance voter turnout in Rustad’s riding of Nechako Lakes was 30.5 per cent.
Total turnout in 2020 was 54 per cent, down from about 61 per cent in 2017.
Stewart Prest, a political science lecturer at the University of British Columbia, said many factors are at play in the advance voter turnout.
“If you have an early option, if you have an option where there are fewer crowds, fewer lineups that you have to deal with, then that’s going to be a much more desirable option,” said Prest.
“So, having the possibility of voting across multiple advanced voting days is something that more people are looking to as a way to avoid last-minute lineups or heavy weather.”
Voters along the south coast of British Columbia who have not cast their ballots yet will have to contend with heavy rain and high winds from an incoming atmospheric river weather system on election day.
Environment Canada said the weather system will bring prolonged heavy rain to Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Whistler and Vancouver Island starting Friday.
Eby said the forecast of an atmospheric weather storm on election day will become a “ballot question” for some voters who are concerned about the approaches the parties have towards addressing climate change.
But he said he is confident people will not let the storm deter them from voting.
“I know British Columbians are tough and they’re not going to let even an atmospheric river stop them from voting,” said Eby.
In northern B.C., heavy snow is in the forecast starting Friday and through to Saturday for areas along the Yukon boundary.
Elections BC said it will focus on ensuring it is prepared for bad weather, said Andrew Watson, senior director of communications.
“We’ve also been working with BC Hydro to make sure that they’re aware of all of our voting place locations so that they can respond quickly if there are any power outages,” he said.
Elections BC also has paper backups for all of its systems in case there is a power outage, forcing them to go through manual procedures, Watson said.
Prest said the dramatic downfall of the Official Opposition BC United Party just before the start of the campaign and voter frustration could also be contributing to the record size of the advance vote.
It’s too early to say if the province is experiencing a “renewed enthusiasm for voting,” he said.
“As a political scientist, I think it would be a good thing to see, but I’m not ready to conclude that’s what we are seeing just yet,” he said, adding, “this is one of the storylines to watch come Saturday.”
Overall turnout in B.C. elections has generally been dwindling compared with the 71.5 per cent turnout for the 1996 vote.
Adam Olsen, Green Party campaign chair, said the advance voting turnout indicates people are much more engaged in the campaign than they were in the weeks leading up to the start of the campaign in September.
“All we know so far is that people are excited to go out and vote early,” he said. “The real question will be does that voter turnout stay up throughout election night?”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said more than 180,000 voters cast their votes on Wednesday.
