The sky is still golden pink when I catch the bus and then the train to downtown Calgary — a new job, a new beginning.
But at the second stop, a familiar sign catches my eye. It’s on the building where I worked my first job in an administrative position to get my foot in the door as a new immigrant to Canada.
It’s also a grim reminder. There have been so many new beginnings that sometimes I feel I’m going in circles.
This is my ninth year in Canada — my dream country — and my 15th job in a row. I feel I am still scrambling to put my best foot forward. With every contract that ends, my heart sinks, my confidence plunges, and my anxiety grows. I wasn’t prepared for how much of the labour market in Canada is based on this precarious work or the gig economy.
When I first moved to Canada from Nepal, I knew I would have to start with a basic entry-level job and work hard to get re-established. Back home, with a business degree, I was an officer in an international not-for-profit organization. After I landed in Calgary, I worked in a couple of retail shops because I saw it as a valuable learning experience and a way to get my start.
Merina Shrestha rides Calgary Transit to another job opportunity in Calgary. (Submitted by Merina Shrestha)
I took training in Canadian employment skills through a local non-profit and got an unpaid placement at a local IT company with the promise of job experience. But at the end of my three-month contract, the firm simply said I did an excellent job and gave me a nice farewell. My manager said there was no permanent role for me and that she was sorry to let me go.
I was disappointed. A colleague told me they were under a hiring freeze, but was that just an excuse? In my heart, I felt I must have done a good job, but not good enough to be hired.
Still working part-time in retail, I knocked on several doors and landed a new assignment as an accounting assistant with a large oil and gas company. My excitement knew no bounds. My job was to help them transition to a new accounting system, a role I felt like I grasped quickly.
But after six or seven months, work started to recede. As the oil and gas industry went through a downturn, I was again let go with the promise that if they had work in the future, the company would contact me.
I must have done a good job, but not good enough to be hired.– Merina Shrestha
Another great job, another reference — but I was again starting all over. The setbacks and frustrations never end.
Sometimes I worry that I can’t find a permanent job because I’m an immigrant. At multiple interviews, I’m questioned about my ability to speak English. All through school and work in Nepal, English has been the means of communication. I took for granted that I communicate well. Suddenly, I’m doubting my ability to speak the language.
It has an impact on my family and my confidence.
For the first six years we were in Canada, my family lived in the basement of an old house in northwest Calgary. I felt helpless, watching my kids staring at the ceiling, with no fresh air and little sunlight, until finally the stability my husband found in his career allowed us to qualify for a mortgage.
Words of praise come often, but it never seems to be enough to land that coveted permanent position, writes Merina Shrestha. The signatures and company name have been blurred on this recognition card for privacy. (Merina Shrestha)
Thanks to my reputation and the kind words of my supervisors, I’ve never spent more than a month off work.
But sometimes I get exasperated. I came here in my mid-30s, and I’m still struggling into my 40s. I feel like I am on an endless cycle of quality control in a warehouse.
I know I’m not alone experiencing this. Almost two million Canadians worked in the gig economy in 2019, taking short-term contracts or doing shift work for platforms like Uber, according to Statistics Canada. Immigrants make up a large share of these workers.
And beyond the gig economy, even more Canadians have “precarious” work — temporary, part-time or seasonal jobs, often making minimum wage.
Each time a job ends, I try to remind myself that I am continuing to grow and learning to fit in here, so all is not lost. But at the same time, I ask myself, how long can I cope with this uncertainty? Do I have the resilience and patience to keep going through these circles?
I wonder if doing more homework or accessing more training before immigration would have helped me integrate better, and if Canada and the organizations using this temporary labour are providing enough support and security. Are we expendable individuals to let go on a whim?
For now, I am taking it one day at a time. If I am working on a particular day, if my family is settled, and if our basic needs are being met, that is a good day.
Telling your story
As part of our ongoing partnership with the Calgary Public Library, CBC Calgary is running in-person writing workshops to support community members telling their own stories. Read more from this workshop, run out of the Quarry Park Library.
OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.
Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.
Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.
Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.
Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.
Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.
According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.
That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.
People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.
That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.
Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.
That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
