That's quite a bit.
In terms of the first one, about a $10 minimum wage, the federal government really doesn't have a minimum wage, a specific number. It goes with the provincial minimum wage. We certainly could change that, but the problem there is that you have different labour market conditions across the country. So having one wage at $10 an hour might work for employees under the federal jurisdiction—it might work in Newfoundland—but it probably wouldn't work in Alberta.
Overall, I'm in favour of the idea of increasing minimum wages, because they have fallen behind significantly, as a share of the overall average industrial wage in recent years. But again, it's largely a provincial issue.
Studies in the United States have found that the overall employment effects of raising minimum wages are not that great. Historically economists have always thought it was a bad idea—you don't want to interfere—but recent studies have shown that small increases don't have much negative effect on employment...not raising it to $15 an hour. So overall, I'd support the idea of minimum wages.
On the point about mobility, I think the best thing that's happened to labour mobility in Canada in recent years is cheap flights. Now you can probably go from Newfoundland to Alberta for much less than ten years ago with WestJet, for example, Air Canada's competition. That's an important, positive factor. People now can afford to commute three or four times a year between Fort McMurray and St. John's.
In terms of what we can do, there are many tax ideas for residents. I'm not an expert on that tax, but you have to be careful about the possibility of abuse in this area. Overall, I think that should be investigated, possibly using unemployment insurance for moving, for expenses. Grants to people on welfare to support job searches in low unemployment areas would be a good idea, or providing better labour market information. I think there are a number of things we can do.
It's important to highlight that we are a very mobile society. If you look at the numbers of people moving, they're very large right now, particularly from Atlantic Canada to Alberta. People do move in response to economic incentives.
In terms of the retirement issue, what types of adjustments...? Historically pension benefits have been based on your last three or five years' average salary. Therefore, if you work part-time, this could have a negative effect on your average salary. If your pension is based on a lower number, you're going to be worse off during your retired years. So there can be some adjustment for the calculation of your pension—not using your last five years or adjusting for part-time work.
Also, many employers do not allow their workers to work part-time; they want full-time work and that's it. So we have to have more flexibility whereby a worker would have the right to work part-time, taking the nature of the job into consideration. Workers would be allowed to work part-time, if they preferred, and many full-time workers in Canada would prefer to work part-time.
Part-time work is not necessarily bad. It's bad if you want a full-time job, you can't find it, and you're forced to work part-time. But the fact that we have part-time work is actually good. Many people much prefer part-time because of family responsibilities or other reasons.