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Finance committee Thank you, Mr. Rajotte and members of the committee, for the opportunity to appear with you. I will focus my introductory remarks on the condition of Canada's overall labour market. In particular, I will argue that the labour market is characterized, and will continue to be chara
May 31st, 2012Committee meeting
Jim Stanford
Finance committee It is an enormous shortage of jobs, not a lack of workers and not a lack of work ethic, that explains the decline in the employment rate pictured in the graph and the challenges in our households and communities. Let me conclude by summarizing the relevance of this analysis for
May 31st, 2012Committee meeting
Jim Stanford
Finance committee I wouldn't dispute the empirical accuracy of the claim that net new jobs have been created and net new jobs are an important variable to follow. The question is, how do you appropriately interpret that measure? In a country like Canada, whose population is growing relatively quic
May 31st, 2012Committee meeting
Jim Stanford
Finance committee You mentioned the issue of cash and other short-term financial assets not being mobilized within the business community. I do think that is an important problem. Think of the economy as having four major players in it, if you like, who have to be spending, and in general borrowin
May 31st, 2012Committee meeting
Jim Stanford
Finance committee Yes, we release audited financial statements twice yearly. Those statements are public. In fact, in most jurisdictions we're required to file them with the labour board. So there's no issue about the transparency or public nature of our financial statements.
May 31st, 2012Committee meeting
Jim Stanford
Finance committee Well, I certainly accept that temporary foreign workers seem to be part of an emerging global production chain; that is to say, it is a way for employers to—in a way—tap into very desperate, very low-wage pools of labour from other countries and to bring them to Canada.
May 31st, 2012Committee meeting
Jim Stanford
Finance committee I do think the claim that more Canadian jobs are created when you bring these workers in is not—
May 31st, 2012Committee meeting
Jim Stanford
Finance committee Well, first of all, I would say that this kind of classic stereotype of the temporary foreign worker as someone who picks produce in a field is increasingly inaccurate. That's a small share, and a shrinking share, of the total number. You're seeing temporary foreign workers in re
May 31st, 2012Committee meeting
Jim Stanford
Finance committee Yes, right.
May 31st, 2012Committee meeting
Jim Stanford
Finance committee I think we have a lot to learn from Germany in skills development, but also in a number of other areas. Certainly, the integration between the college and skilled trades training programs, and the needs of employers and actual machinists and other very specialized trades, is mo
May 31st, 2012Committee meeting
Jim Stanford
Finance committee In my judgment, what has not been effective in general in eliciting more investment spending by business has been across-the-board reductions in the general corporate income tax. Those are not tied to any incremental investment decision by the companies. I would be more supportiv
May 31st, 2012Committee meeting
Jim Stanford
Finance committee I've certainly heard those arguments, yes.
May 31st, 2012Committee meeting
Jim Stanford
Finance committee Yes, I'm an economist. I was trained at the University of Calgary, where I studied at the same time in the same department as a certain prime minister. Then I received graduate degrees in England and America.
May 31st, 2012Committee meeting
Jim Stanford
Finance committee Accelerated depreciation is certainly better than an across-the-board corporate tax cut. You have to pay to play, in essence.
May 31st, 2012Committee meeting
Jim Stanford
Finance committee I have a PhD in economics from the New School for Social Research in New York City.
May 31st, 2012Committee meeting
Jim Stanford