XPost: can.politics, tor.general, ont.politics   
   XPost: bc.politics   
   From: "@nyet.ca   
      
   I read this article while waiting in a medical office.  Good article,   
   but filled with hair-raising facts.  Read it if you have the reading   
   capability and the guts to face up to reality in Canada.   
   _________________________________________   
   Chris Sorensen - Macleans - January 8, 2014   
      
      
   How safe is your job?   
      
   The recession is over, but factories are still closing, companies are   
   downsizing and people are getting laid off   
      
      
   H.J. Heinz Co. celebrated its 100th year in Leamington, Ont., in   
   September 2009. Despite the recession, company officials gushed about   
   the future of the factory, where up to 300 bottles of ketchup flew off   
   the assembly line every minute. The production line would be there for   
   “a long time,” they said. And why not? It wasn’t like North Americans   
   were about to stop eating burgers and fries.   
      
   Four years later, Pittsburgh-based Heinz has suddenly soured on the   
   tomato capital of Canada. It will close the Leamington plant in June,   
   eliminating 740 jobs. The company’s new owners, which include Warren   
   Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, say the facility had become unprofitable   
   despite the recovering U.S. economy—the latest example of a big   
   corporation pursuing a strategy of aggressive cost-cutting, even as   
   sales appear set to revive.   
      
   What happened in Leamington was not an isolated incident.  In recent   
   months, scores of big employers across Canada have made similarly   
   distressing announcements: Sears is laying off nearly 800 workers;   
   Hallmark plans to move 300 jobs to the U.S.; Kellogg’s is closing a   
   cereal plant in London and laying off 500; U.S. discount retailer Big   
   Lots is shuttering 78 Canadian stores and slashing 1,600 jobs; Potash   
   Corp. is culling 1,045 workers, including 440 in Saskatchewan and 130 in   
   New Brunswick; and natural gas producer Encana is dumping 800 employees.   
   Even the Bank of Montreal quietly eliminated nearly 1,000 positions in   
   the fourth quarter—despite posting a record full-year profit of $4.2   
   billion. The list goes on. The job losses aren’t relegated to any one   
   sector; they’re all over the map—manufacturing, resources, retail,   
   finance—making it difficult to point to a sector that can be counted on   
   for robust growth this year.   
      
   Experts say it’s more than just a coincidence. “The Canadian economy is   
   far weaker than anyone expected it to be,” says Mike Moffatt, an   
   assistant professor at the University of Western Ontario’s Ivey School   
   of Business. And while that’s never welcome news for the job market, the   
   slump couldn’t come at a worse time for Canadian families who are up to   
   their eyeballs in debt. Statistics Canada recently said households owe a   
   record $1.64 for every dollar they earn.   
      
   Escaping the crushing weight of all those mortgages and lines of credit   
   requires job creation and income growth, which is looking like an   
   increasingly tall order. The 179,100 jobs the Canadian economy created   
   in the 12-month period leading up to November was, except for the Great   
   Recession, the worst showing of any comparable period since 2001. Put   
   another way, in 2012, an average of 25,400 jobs were added every month.   
   In 2013, monthly job gains were barely half that amount. And many of   
   those new positions are increasingly temporary or part-time. Of the   
   21,600 new jobs in November, fewer than one in 10 were in full-time   
   positions—hardly ideal for supporting a family or paying off a big mortgage.   
      
   In fact, economists predict Canada’s unemployment rate will surpass   
   America’s in 2014 for the first time in five years.   
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     [see yesterday's news where the opposite happened]   
      
   And, while an apples-to-apples comparison of the two countries’   
   unemployment figures is fraught—for technical reasons having to do with   
   how they’re calculated—psychologically speaking, the event will come as   
   a shock to Canadians lulled into believing we are somehow economically   
   superior; that with all the talk of recovery, our jobs would be safer.   
      
   The net effect is a recovery that feels more like the recession that   
   preceded it. Politicians boast about Canada’s exceptionalism, but it’s   
   rapidly becoming apparent that our economy is a lot less dynamic than   
   we’d been led to believe. “We were running up this huge housing and   
   construction boom that, economically, probably didn’t make much sense,   
   and covered up a whole lot of sins,” Moffatt says. “I think we’re   
   finally starting to recognize that, five years after the financial   
   crisis, there are still a lot of people looking for work.”   
      
   Canada is facing a jobs crisis with its stagnating labour market and,   
   unless things pick up soon, the financial crunch many families are   
   already feeling is going to get worse.   
      
   The narrative about Canada’s economic performance during the 2009   
   recession is well-known: Buoyed by “prudent” banks, federal officials   
   deftly pulled on their policy levers to make it easier for Canadians to   
   borrow money to buy cars, houses and gadgets.  All that spending propped   
   up the economy and bolstered the job market while other countries   
   grappled with massive unemployment. “Canada now has the best   
   job-creation record in the G7—one million net new jobs since the depths   
   of the recession,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper reminded Canadians in a   
   recent speech.   
      
   But such rosy pronouncements are at odds with the bleak performance of   
   the Canadian economy in the last few months.      <<=====   
      
   It began slowing rapidly in 2012, and very nearly ground to a halt last   
   year with GDP growth of just over 1.6 per cent. The reason?  Consumers   
   are finally tapped out. “Domestically, the growth drivers aren’t really   
   there anymore,” says Benjamin Reitzes, a senior economist at BMO Capital   
   Markets. “We’re still going to see consumption growth, which is the   
   largest part of the economy, but it’s not going to be the leader it once   
   was.”   
      
   One of the first sectors to get hit will be Canada’s overheated housing   
   market, which almost single-handedly pulled the country through the   
   recession.  While many (including this magazine) have predicted a crash,   
   even a marked slowdown threatens to kneecap a construction sector that   
   grew right alongside the forest of condo towers that now dominate the   
   skylines of cities such as Toronto and Vancouver.  Taken together,   
   construction and real estate account for more than nine per cent of all   
   Canadian jobs, a level not seen since at least 1976, the furthest back   
   Statistics Canada data go. What’s more, the construction and real estate   
   sectors make up close to 20 per cent of Canada’s economy, meaning a   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)