Category Archives: CarletonDataJournalism2020_1

Among parents that have difficulty finding child care, 59 per cent of British Columbians say affordability is a barrier to child care. Photo submitted by Baneet Braich

Barriers to child care affordability and accessibility in B.C. remain third highest in Canada.

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Thea Lopez immigrated to Surrey, B.C. in 2017 with her husband, one-year-old daughter, and one child on the way.  Starting their new careers in Canada as nurses, child care was a top priority. In 2017, Lopez’s children were number 360 plus on the child care waitlist. Three years later her son is still number 27 and her daughter- who is now in kindergarten- is number 26.

“I called more than 30 facilities in 2017 and there were no spaces, even if I have the resources to put my kids in, there is no space,” she says. “As much as I want to work and be part of the system, I cannot.” 

Lopez’s struggles led her to advocate for the $10aDay Child Care initiative in B.C. which pushes for families to pay $200 a month for child care with participating daycares. 

Since November 2018, the B.C. government approved over 50 prototype sites where families pay $200 a month for child care. A recent Early Learning and Child Care agreement with the federal government has extended the prototype sites into 2021. These sites are testing funding and operations towards a universal child care system, according to the government of B.C. website. 

Sharon Gregson, spokesperson $10aDay Child Care, says she is hopeful that COVID-19 will instill urgency and result in long-term changes to child care.“Covid-19 has highlighted both provincially and federally how crucial child care is for women’s participation in the workforce,” says Gregson. When more parents can access affordable child care, it has an impact on labour force participation, she added. 

 The median cost of full-time, full-day child care in Vancouver in 2018 was nearly $1,400 a month for infants, $1,407 for toddlers, and $1,000 for a preschoolers, according to a report by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. For Lopez, the cheapest daycare she found was $900 a month but with an extensive waiting list. 

Alison Merton, director of the Early Years Program at Collingwood Neighbourhood House says that despite a 25 per cent increase in requests at her day care this year, she recognizes that accessibility and affordability remain a concern for families. 

This graph shows differences in finding child care due to affordability by province in 2019. For data source by Statistics Canada click here.

“Accessibility is huge,” she says. “Having those spaces available for families, we just don’t have enough especially for infants and toddlers. We just don’t.”

Merton says that part of the issue is recruitment and retention in the field. “We just don’t have the staff coming into the field. It’s just very hard to piece together, she says.

Although the government added $2 an hour to early childhood educator (ECE) wages in April 2020, Merton says, “We need to do better.”  Many ECE staff leave to work in education for higher pay and better benefits, she says.

Merton says the child care system can be improved by having funding allocated to child care programs instead of the subsidy for families.  “If you are funding the programs you have a certain amount of control of quality being delivered to the program,” she says.  

Among the people who have difficulty finding child care, 66.4 per cent of B.C. parents say it’s due to difficulty finding available child care in their communities.For data source by Statistics Canada click here.

While municipalities have different needs to best foster child care demands, Gregson says she remains absolutely hopeful with B.C.’s child care future. 

“B.C. is one of the few provinces that has a provincial plan ready to be implemented,” says Gregson. B.C.’s cities are in a much better position now to know where they need childcare, how much, and their issues with recruitment and childcare educators, she adds. 

British Columbia’s investment into childcare continues in 2020 with $1.4 billion for Childcare BC. This brings the total investment in child care programs to $2 billion over three years, according to the government of B.C. website. 

 

Canada sees highest number of young women working part-time, can’t find full-time jobs since April

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Salsabil Rahman’s hours at the Canada Revenue Agency were cut by more than half due to the pandemic. She’s one of  thousands of women who have had to settle for part-time jobs this summer. [Photo © Shafayet Turash]
Three years ago Salsabil Rahman, 24, came to Canada for a better education, job and to help her family struggling financially in Bangladesh. She planned on saving thousands of dollars this summer working full-time at the Canada Revenue Agency. Instead she ended up being one of 107,300 young women who had to work part-time because they couldn’t find full-time jobs. The number of women facing this problem increased by 192 per cent, almost tripling among women aged 15-24 from April to August, according to Statistics Canada.  

“I saw it coming. The management said my department isn’t of high importance right now but obviously I was very sad,” Rahman says.

In February, the third-year Carleton University finance student landed a job as a project management officer for an appeal modernization project at the CRA. When the pandemic hit, Rahman’s 40-hour work week was downgraded to 16. She constantly searched for other full-time finance jobs but had no luck.

Frances Woolley, a Carleton economics professor, explains the increasing demand for full-time work is actually a sign that the economy is improving.

“When there (are) no jobs around people won’t bother looking. It’s only when people think that they have a chance of finding a job that they start looking so there’s some good news,” Woolley says.

There’s a particular increase in women’s part-time employment because women are more likely to accept part-time work than their male counterparts, according to Woolley. She draws this analysis based on more than two decades of her cited work which is mostly about feminist economics and inequality within the household.

She adds that it’s more common for women to work in the service sector which is currently hiring less full-time workers due to the pandemic, also contributing to the increase in women settling for part-time work.

A bar graph illustrating the increase in the number of women aged 15 to 24 who are working part-time because they can’t find full-time jobs. Visualization by Yasmine Ghania

Besides the financial loss, Rahman says she’s disappointed about the slash in her hours because it gives her less time to convince her employers to give her a permanent position upon graduation.

Both Rahman and her husband Mazharul Towhid, also a Carleton student, already have university degrees from Bangladesh but decided to continue studying in Canada in hopes for a better life. Thankfully Towhid was able to keep his full-time summer job as a financial analyst at Harris Computer Systems which paid for rent and bills.

“It’s very important that we have something set in the long run,” Rahman says. “We need to land on something very good, at least one of us.”

While Rahman only worked two days a week, she still made $1,200 a month meaning she wasn’t eligible for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). Her supervisor told her she could nullify her contract so she could get $2,000 from CERB but Rahman decided to continue working. 

“Calculating the long-term benefit, I didn’t want to take the risk of leaving. I already have a low opportunity of proving myself. I didn’t want to cut the chance even more,” Rahman says. 

Although both men and women are struggling to find secure employment, Woolley explains there are “gendered structural differences” that impede women’s advancements in the workplace. 

A new report released Friday from Ryerson University’s Diversity Institute and the Public Policy Forum finds that the number of men and women at entry level jobs are equal, yet men are promoted at double — sometimes triple — the rate.

Julie Cafley, co-author of the report, is calling on the Feds to ensure gender equality in COVID economic recovery plans. 

“We need to ensure that we’re not building back the economy the same way we’ve done it in the past,” Cafley says. “There’s a huge opportunity to build back differently.” 

Given the high chance many sectors will be forced to shut down amid rising COVID-19 cases, Woolley says it’s difficult to predict how the labour market will look in the next few months.

For now, Rahman says she’s focused on graduating university with high marks so she can be one step closer to a permanent position at the CRA.  

Owners, economists predict restaurant and bar sales decline during winter months

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After restaurants and bars in Ontario experienced a rebound in sales during the summer, some restaurant owners and economists are expecting a rapid decline in business with the arrival of colder months.

An analysis of data released by Statistics Canada in September showed restaurant and bar sales in Ontario increased in May, June, and July.

The increase in sales was preceded by the establishments opening up again after the province forced them to shut down in March and April, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Oct. 9, the Ontario provincial government announced indoor dining and drinking will once again be prohibited, as the province entered its second wave in late September.

Physical distancing rules also loosened up in many Ontario municipalities over the summer, possibly contributing to the slow increase in people going out to eat or drink after the re-openings, according to Anna Feng, an economist at the Conference Board of Canada. 

Despite the summer increase, sales at Ontario restaurants and bars in July only reached half the numbers of the previous year, in July 2019, according to an analysis of the Statistics Canada data.

Feng said although country-wide sales in the restaurant industry increased in July, according to the Stat Can numbers, the unprecedented drop in March and April means the industry has still not fully recovered.

“It’s the largest drop we’ve ever seen in history,” Feng said, adding that the July increase has not yet caught up with numbers from the previous year.

Although restaurants and bars this summer saw an increase in sales, they did not make a full rebound. (Visualization by Leila El Shennawy) 

Joelle Parenteau, one of the owners of Ottawa fast-casual sandwich restaurant Wolf Down, said the late summer months until now have been great for her business.

“We’re busier than ever,” Parenteau said.

One of the federal government’s first COVID-19 aid programs, the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), is one reason Feng attributes to the increase, in addition to pent-up demand.

“There’s less concern (for) their financial condition,” she explained. “That means Canadians can spend a little bit more on those leisure [activities] and dining out over the summer.”

Feng said restaurant owners can expect to see a larger drop than usual in sales this year as soon as the weather is too cold for patrons to sit on patios.

“Now, people are going out because they’re sitting on patios, enjoying the summer and the fresh air,” she said. “But as soon as we enter the winter, the cold weather, the snow and blizzards, it’s just going to be impossible for people to sit on patios.”

Without patios, that leaves dining indoors. With the arrival of the second wave of COVID-19 in Ontario, and record-breaking numbers being reported in some of the province’s largest cities, Feng says indoor dining is likely to be limited even further.

“That will just take a further hit to the recovery of our restaurant industry.”

 A small winter dip is typical, according to Statistics Canada numbers, since last winter saw a small sales decline in the winter months. This graph also shows the drop in sales during the pandemic. (Visualization by Leila El Shennawy) 

However, Feng says, another major contributor to sales, food delivery apps such as Uber Eats and Door Dash, may help keep restaurants in Ontario afloat through the winter.

Parenteau said her restaurant relies heavily on takeout and delivery, and that they have been lucky in that regard.

“We’re fortunate to have been in a position where we could just double down on takeout and delivery,” she said. “We’re fast casual, so it’s much easier for us to transfer the sales over to takeout versus restaurants that rely on dine-in.”

Despite an August prediction by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce that 60 per cent of restaurants could close within three months without aid, Feng said it is unlikely Canada will experience permanent, mass closures of eating and drinking establishments.

Feng said the Conference Board of Canada’s own analysis predicts the Canadian restaurant industry will be able to return to its pre-pandemic state.

“In the very long-term, probably by the end of 2021 or by early 2022, we expect the restaurant sales to come back to its pre-COVID level,” she said.

Parenteau said her business is doing well enough that it will likely survive the pandemic. Still, she says, the uncertainty has been difficult.

“It’s been a little more stressful than usual because you just never know what piece is going to fail next,” she said. “It seems like every week there’s something new, a struggle.”

How two brewers have stayed during Covid-19

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Brad Fennell (left) and Mitch Veilleux (right) in front of their old and small brewer tanks they had to replace this summer. Sean Sisk Photography/Sean Sisk.

From June to July there was almost an 80 per cent increase in jobs in bars, breweries, nightclubs and taverns in Ontario, according to analysis of a recent report from Statistics Canada.

This is the highest increase in jobs in the sector Statistics Canada categorizes as “drinking places” since the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown the economy in March. For Overflow Brewing Company, almost all the jobs they lost have been refilled because of a spike of online sales and the help of laid-off workers from the airline industry.

From March to July employment rates of drinking places have dropped by almost 50 per cent, according to the same report by statistic Canada. For Overflow it was even more drastic: “On March 16 there was nobody else here but Mitch and I,” says Brad Fennell, co-owner of Overflow.

http://A graph showing the largest dip of employment being in May, and the largest jump being in July. Max Bakony.

 

Together Fennell and Mitch Veilleux opened the brewery in 2017. Until the spring of 2020 they had only two online sales.

“Then on the 16th of March it started with one, and then 10, and then 20, and then upwards of a hundred (online sales) a day,” says Fennell.

Today Overflow is no longer one of the only craft breweries delivering beer, but its ability to offer the service early during the pandemic helped save their business.

By mid-summer they couldn’t hire enough from the beverage industry, so 50 per cent of their new hires ended up being flight attendants: “If you can serve somebody up 20,000 ft. in the air, in a steel tube, and be relaxed under the pressure,” says Fennell. “You can certainly work here.”

From March to July airline sector jobs in Ontario dropped by almost 20 per cent.

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A graph showing the largest dip of employment in airlines being in May. Over the following three months Overflow hired many of those who lost their jobs in the skies. Max Bakony.

 

The news that former airline workers are finding work at Overflow was heartening for Wendy Shaw. She’s an employment counselor and outreach specialist for Youth Services Bureau, a non-for-profit organization offering job seekers of all ages support in finding employment.

“I think it’s incredibly important that people start looking at other options,” says Shaw. For example, “if you don’t have smart serve, you’re probably not going to be able to work in a brewery, or work in a senior’s residence, or work in safe food handling…”

Shaw urges job seekers to invest in the credentials needed to work in multiple industries. She says the current job market is fierce.

More online sales didn’t make things easier for Overflow as the flip in their business model came with new problems:

“We were running out of beer,” says Veilleux.

According to the brewer, their tanks weren’t big enough to produce the quantity they needed for the high-volume low margin business they had transformed into. “We had to sell our old (brewing) tanks, buy new ones, integrate them, and start brewing with twice the number of ingredients,” says Veilleux.

At the height of their sales, they were starting from scratch.

The expense of supporting the online sales kept their profits nil while their revenues remained high. Because of their high revenue, they didn’t qualify for most programs offered by the Federal government. An unfair predicament according to Veilleux: “We could have used that little bit of relief”

Two weeks ago after the Speech from the Throne, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his plan to create one million new jobs for Canadians and to reintroduce the finical assistance available to Canadians and Canadian businesses this summer. Veilleux and Fennell are proud of how both the provincial and federal governments helped Canadians.

However, they stress that to reach that quota set by Trudeau jobs have to be created organically by better supporting the businesses providing them.

Overflow sign beckoning beer enthusiasts into their brewery (left of the picture). Max Bakony

Unemployment rate for young Ontarians higher in August than in April

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The unemployment rate for young Ontarians was higher in August than in April when much of the province was under lockdown because of COVID-19, according to the StatsCan labour force survey from last month.

The unemployment rate refers to people of working age who are without work, are available for work, and have taken specific steps to find work. For Ontarians aged 15-24, the unemployment rate in male and female job seekers was 1.26 and 1.04 times higher in August than in April respectively.

Michael Edgar, a student at Carleton University in Ottawa, has been searching for employment since he was let go from a restaurant in March. He is 21 years old and this is the first time in five years that he is without work.

At first, Edgar says he applied for jobs in data analysis because they would allow him to work from home. But after not hearing back, he decided to begin applying at restaurants again since that’s where he had the most experience. But one of the big challenges he is facing when applying for jobs is not hearing back about the status of his applications.

“A lot of places aren’t telling you when you don’t get the job, which is really annoying,” Edgar says. “I have had everything—from them taking my application and telling me they’re seriously considering hiring me to them pretty much laughing me out of the restaurant. It’s really tough out there.”

Brodie Martin, another Carleton student who was let go from his job at the start of the pandemic has had a similar experience. He says finding employment has been difficult because he is unable to find work that he can do from home.

Martin worked in a shoe outlet in Ottawa Train Yards before the pandemic. He was let go in March, rehired over the summer, but left his workplace because of the lack of safety. His roommate is immunocompromised and he did not want to put her under risk.

“The store supplied us with masks, they supplied us with face shields, they supplied us with hand sanitizer and all that. And there were markers on the floor of how close you’re supposed to get to customers. But in practice, customers just ignored it,” Martin says.

Both Edgar and Martin have been unsuccessful in finding employment at a time when the government has been adding new jobs to the economy each month. Employment in the country rose by 246,000 in August alone, with 142,000 new jobs in the province of Ontario.

Although young Ontarians are struggling to find employment, August was not the worst month for them. The unemployment rate for young Ontarians was highest in the months of June and July, with the unemployment rate in males and females 1.28 times and 1.33 times higher than in April during that time.

Edgar and Martin say they understand it’s difficult for students and young Canadians to find jobs, especially during a global pandemic, but that it might help if employers and the government create more volunteer opportunities within their organizations and better communicate them.

“As much as I’d love to be paid for something I’m good at, I understand that it’s hard to get it right off the bat,” Edgar says. “But even volunteer opportunities are a bit scarce or hard to come across, so maybe even more communication on more popular platforms with youth like Instagram, or Snapchat to tell them what’s out there or who’s hiring. In today’s technology, you would think that the job market would be pretty accessible, but it’s still shrouded in darkness.”

“I think if they sort of pushed these opportunities more in our face it’d be quite nice,” Martin adds.