Money for a post-work world

“Yet here we are, still toiling away with unemployment rates at multi-decade lows. Instead of eradicating work, technology has done what it will surely always continue to do: create more jobs than it destroys. What matters far more in Forget’s view is the quality of those new jobs. And it is the rise of precarious labour, reflected in the side-hustle economy, piecemeal freelance gigs, and endless contract positions, which basic income is perfectly suited to address, by providing a measure of insurance against job insecurity.”

Jason Kirby – Literary Review of Canada – November 2018

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The Minister of Everything

“On Nov. 5, 2015, the morning after he was sworn in, Navdeep Bains approached a podium in the halls of Parliament Hill. It took him exactly 23 seconds—barely enough time to recite his unwieldy new title, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development—to announce the return of the mandatory long-form census, which the Conservatives had scrapped in 2010. He lifted a copy of the document and struck a grade-schooler’s show-and-tell pose, flashing a grin for the scrum of photographers surrounding him. The smile wasn’t all show. Bains, a 41-year-old FCPA and four-term Liberal MP, is a self-professed ‘numbers guy.’ And nothing gets a numbers guy going like a census.”

Luc Rinaldi – Pivot Magazine – November 2018

 

Checking in with the oil crowd

“As someone who’s reported on climate justice for years, I decided to make a trip into the belly of the beast to see what the oil business is doing to propel the low-carbon energy transition, or to hinder it. So now I’m at the Calgary Stampede grounds, on Treaty 7 territory, trying to make sense of what the people gathered here believe is next for their industry – and, by consequence, our planet. The conference guidebook tells me we’re here ‘CELEBRATING THE FUTURE OF ENERGY.’ Excuse my skepticism.”

David Gray-Donald – Briarpatch – August 2018

From NAFTA to USMCA: Inside the tense negotiations that saved North American trade

“And there, in Mr. Lighthizer’s e-mail, was what Canada had demanded all along: The United States would leave the Chapter 19 dispute resolution system completely untouched. Ms. Freeland threw up her hands and cheered. ‘Woo hoo!’ This was the crucial moment – described to The Globe and Mail by four sources – of the 72-hour marathon of negotiations last weekend that sealed it. Before Sunday was out, the two sides had announced a tentative deal on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, as the United States insisted NAFTA be renamed.”

Adrian Morrow, Barrie McKenna, Stephanie Nolen – The Globe and Mail – October 2018

The Last Cannery Standing

“From the outside, St. Jean’s looks nothing like the canneries of old. Boats, for instance, are absent. Located about a kilometer from tidewater in an industrial part of the southern Vancouver Island city of Nanaimo, it has truck bays instead of wharves for receiving fish. The signage is minimal, but there’s no missing the three-meter-tall can of salmon in front of the cluster of low, metal-clad buildings. I enter the yard and ask a man wearing blue coveralls, a ball cap, and scuffed steel-toed boots where I might find Steve Hughes, the company president. He flashes a grin and points to the can. Sure enough, there’s a door on the far side.”

Frances Backhouse – Hakai Magazine – August 2018

Ontario’s social experiment: Can basic income buy happiness?

“Finland, Kenya, the Netherlands and Oakland, Calif., have embarked on their own basic-income experiments over the past year. Those pilot programs, as well as Ontario’s, will help provide some answers. If deemed successful, basic income could be rolled out more widely and transform how social assistance is provided. ‘It is a way of assessing how people react,’ said Ontario Community and Social Services Minister Helena Jaczek.”

 

Rachelle Younglai – The Globe and Mail – April 2017

Why It’s so Hard to Actually Work in Shared Offices

“Jarred was trying to sell me on more than just aesthetics— he was offering a utopian vision of community. My future co-workers, he said, would be fascinating. They were startup founders and young creative types. A tequila company had rented office space and wanted to host tequila Tuesdays. He opened the WeWork app on his phone, and I watched as a cascade of posts from my soon-to-be colleagues and collaborators flew past. ‘I’ve heard from people who have tried other co-working spaces and…the other ones aren’t bad,’ Jarred said with an exaggerated pause. WeWork was just that much better. ‘We know your name, we remember your birthday, we remember your dog’s birthday,’ he continued. I don’t have a dog, but I appreciated the sentiment. I signed up on the spot.”

Nicholas Hune-Brown – The Walrus – February 2018