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Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said that unemployment needs to rise in order to slow down inflation, although elevated levels of job vacancies could soften the blow. In a speech in Toronto hosted by the Public Policy Forum, Mr. Macklem said that Canada’s labour market is overheating, with unemployment near a record low and businesses struggling to find workers. This is feeding through into inflation, as companies bid up wages to compete for employees. “We need to rebalance the labour market,” Mr. Macklem said. “This will be a difficult adjustment. We want to do this in the best way possible for Canadian workers and businesses.” Mr. Macklem’s comments come on the heels of a blowout jobs report last Friday. Employment jumped by 108,000 in October, recouping all of the jobs lost during the summer slowdown. Average hourly wages were up 5.6 per cent that month compared to the previous year, while the rate of unemployment remained steady at 5.2 per cent as work force participation ro...

Toronto Pearson International Airport saw passenger volumes rise by 135 per cent in the three months ending on Sept. 30, as the operator of Canada’s busiest airport rode a tumultuous return to travel. Toronto Pearson’s operator, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, made a profit of $73-million in the third quarter, reversing a loss of $58-million in the same period a year ago. Revenue rose by 72 per cent to $422-million. The financial results released on Thursday underscore the size of the wave of pentup demand for travel unleashed by the easing of pandemic and related restrictions. The GTAA said the number of travellers rose by 6.5 million to 11.2 million, compared with the year-earlier quarter. This lags the prepandemic third quarter of 2019, when 14.2 million passengers travelled through Toronto Pearson. Toronto Pearson, other Canadian airports and airlines were ill-prepared for the wave of 2022, as travellers faced delays, congestion and lineups due to a lack of workers in air...

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said that unemployment needs to rise in order to slow down inflation, although elevated levels of job vacancies could soften the blow. In a speech in Toronto hosted by the Public policy forum, Mr. Macklem said that Canada’s labour market is overheating. This is feeding through into inflation, as companies bid up wages to compete for employees. “We need to rebalance the labour market,” Mr. Macklem said. “This will be a difficult adjustment. We want to do this in the best way possible for Canadian workers and businesses.” Mr. Macklem’s comments come on the heels of a blowout jobs report last Friday. Employment jumped by 108,000 in October, recouping all of the jobs lost during the summer slowdown. Average hourly wages were up 5.6 per cent that month compared to the previous year, while the rate of unemployment remained steady at 5.2 per cent as work force participation rose. The strength of the labour market is a challenge for the central bank. Mr. ...

The question I work night shifts at my company, however, the HR department only works from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. I would like to book an appointment with them to discuss some concerns I have about my manager and they say that I need to come in during work hours to meet with them in person. It’s inconvenient for me to come in during the 9-5. Should I be compensated for the meeting time? Does the HR department have an obligation to meet with me during my working hours if I need to discuss workplace concerns? The first answer Marion Blight , associate, Randy Ai Law Office, Toronto I’m sorry that you are having difficulty accessing your employer’s human resources, but there isn’t really a special obligation here for HR to be the one who accommodates your schedule. If you would like to have this meeting, then it can happen on their terms, within reason. However, whoever is required to come in during their off hours to handle this matter should at least be compensated. HR would certainly be wo...

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of housing starts slowed in October from its high for the year reached in September. The national housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in October was 267,055 units, down 11 per cent from 298,811 units in September. The annual pace of urban starts was down 11 per cent at 245,234 units in October as multi-unit urban starts fell 13 per cent to 188,189 units. Urban starts of single-detached homes dropped four per cent to 57,045 units. CMHC says the annual pace of starts was down in Toronto and Vancouver, however Montreal posted an increase. Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 21,821. The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate was 277,667 units in October, up 0.5 per cent from 276,374 in September. https://www.tausiinsider.com/annual-pace-of-housing-starts-in-canada-slowed-in-october/?feed_id=350691&_unique_id=648a5981c56e0

Tala Abu Hayyaneh, photographed outside a pub in Calgary, says that the social pressure to take part in after-work drinks can result in uncomfortable situations. Leah Hennel After-work drinks has long been the default setting for casual networking in many Canadian workplaces. The act of gathering at a bar or restaurant to consume alcohol is often seen as a way for employees and their bosses to bond, chat and get to know one another outside the pressures of the job. But for women and other marginalized groups, this common social practice is not always inclusive. For Tala Abu Hayyaneh, a Calgary-based millennial working in the public sector, the presumed participation in drinking culture has resulted in uncomfortable situations. As a Muslim woman, Ms. Abu Hayyaneh recalls the social pressure to conform that occurred during her first employee work retreat post-pandemic lockdowns. “This was the only socializing opportunity to network, [and it] was happening late in the evening at a brewe...

Michael Emory, CEO of Allied Properties REIT, stands in the lobby of offices on Adelaide in Toronto. Ashley Hutcheson/Tausi Insider Office property owner Allied Properties REIT AP-UN-T is considering the sale of its data-centre portfolio, a deal that would help the commercial landlord pay down debt as it retools for a new era of higher interest rates and hybrid working. Allied, best known for its low-rise office buildings in downtown cores, currently owns three data-centre properties in downtown Toronto. In a statement Thursday, the REIT said it is “exploring the sale” of these properties, the largest of which is 151 Front St. West, a major telecom hub. The company values the portfolio at $1.3-billion. Data centres, which house servers and telecommunications equipment, are not core to Allied’s property portfolio – they comprise 16 per cent of net operating income. But chief executive officer Michael Emory has long been bullish on them, in part because their industry is a relatively s...

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra appears as a witness at the Public Order Emergency Commission, in Ottawa, on Nov. 23. PATRICK DOYLE/The Canadian Press Transport Minister Omar Alghabra met with members of the air transport sector to discuss measures to modernize and digitize the industry and to learn from the mistakes that led to major travel disruptions this summer. Alghabra, alongside minister Randy Boissonnault and parliamentary secretary Annie Koutrakis, led a national summit on the recovery of the air sector Thursday to discuss improvements to Canada’s air transportation, including transparency, accountability and passenger rights. Alghabra says that after the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, last summer the air industry faced a new crisis of congestion and delays. He says government officials and air transport actors discussed plans to improve ahead of the winter travel surge including modernizing the security screening process and digitizing the sharing of information. Over th...

Fans react as Canada plays Belgium in their World Cup match at a watch party in Ottawa, on Nov. 23. Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press The FIFA World Cup is bringing a welcome surge in traffic to restaurants and bars. Rocco Mastrangelo Jr., a co-owner of Cafe Diplomatico in the heart of Toronto’s Little Italy neighbourhood, said the restaurant kicked into high gear for the World Cup despite the cold, setting up tents in the road next to its covered, heated patio and hiring live music for Canada’s first game. Though the Wednesday game didn’t end with a win, Mr. Mastrangelo Jr. is still excited for the World Cup matches to come, saying he expects traffic to pick up for certain games. Cafe Diplomatico is already fully booked for Sunday’s matchup of Canada and Croatia, he said. On Wednesday, fans packed the Glebe Central Pub in Ottawa, even standing shoulder to shoulder on the patio in the cold, said general manager Dave Hania, and they stayed into the evening once the game was over. “It w...

An SSE vehicle is parked outside the Pitlochry Dam hydro electric power station in Pitlochry, Scotland. The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is paying £1.47-billion ($2.4-billion) for a 25-per-cent stake in SSEN Transmission. RUSSELL CHEYNE/Reuters Two major Canadian investments announced Friday have refocused attention on an often overlooked sector seen as crucial for the low-carbon energy transition: distribution. The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan said Friday it will pay £1.47-billion ($2.4-billion) for a 25-per-cent stake in SSEN Transmission, a division of Scotland-based SSE PLC, which delivers hydroelectric power from northern Scotland to the rest of Britain. The deal represents the pension plan’s largest-ever power distribution investment. Separately on Friday, the Canada Infrastructure Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CM-T announced they have committed $135-million each in funding for Markham District Energy, which provides centralized heating and cooling for 230 bui...

Over the past year, Canada has added 700,000 people, roughly the same as the population of Mississauga. This population boom has its share of growing pains. Tausi Insider/iStockPhoto / Getty Images Every year, Canada adds a big city – in a sense. The mass of individuals are spread around, mostly to urban centres, but increasingly to suburbs and far-flung communities. They are here to work, to study, to build a better life. The expansion is historic. From July to September, Canada’s population grew by around 285,000, a 0.7-per-cent gain that was the largest since Newfoundland joined Confederation in 1949. More than 700,000 people have been added over the past year, roughly the same as the population of Mississauga, the seventh-largest municipality in the country. The trend picked up when the federal Liberal Party came to power. Since 2016, the country has grown at nearly double the rate of its Group of Seven peers. For the most part, that growth is driven by immigration. The push is d...