Thank you for that question.
This overlaps with what I would have said in relation to the previous question, which is that if you're looking for a definition, you have to have a reason for looking for that. A definition for statistical purposes is a very different exercise than a definition for regulatory purposes. A definition for managing purposes, again, is a very different definition. What I've said in my notes, for instance, in the definition, I started with non-standard employment. We also speak about job insecurity and employment insecurity. There are two different categories. Someone who is afraid of losing their job, that's job insecurity. Allyson's situation is one of employment insecurity. You're always looking for another job all the time because you can't make ends meet.
What you need from both a regulatory and a statistical perspective is clarity. You need to say, “These are the parameters that are interesting to us.” We know from StatsCan that 17% of the temporarily employed do not have health benefits. That's a lot of people. If we're encouraging managers to increase that number in the way that you just suggested, this is not the good way to go for a healthy Canada. Basically, be very precise about what it is that we are promoting when we're having managers who have performance outcomes and what the consequences are of that promotion. Are we encouraging temp agencies to come and provide services for the federal government? What are the working conditions for those temp agency workers? Are we providing temporary contracts that will be renewed time after time or saying henceforth all the interpreters are going to be self-employed? If they get sick, maybe they can sue somebody because they're no longer covered under workers' compensation.
Those are all the issues that you have to proactively define. The literature is all there. We don't need to do a great number of studies to say, “These are the consequences for health. These are the consequences for regulatory effectiveness.” Each regulation is different. The consequences for employment standards would be different categories of people we would be looking at. Full-time minimum wage is precarious employment as well if we're looking at the types of supports that people are needing to be able to feed their families, to have day care, etc.
The only word of caution is be precise about what you want to do, and then make sure you're not using a broad, unspecific definition to do it with.