It’s not just about the work we do. It’s about the promise that lies behind the work. The promise that if we work hard, get educated, improve our skills, we can all do better.

We’re advancing six good ideas to help make that promise a reality; to make work better, for all Ontarians.

And you can be a part of the conversation.

Some Ontarians are fortunate to be working in the job of their dreams. But, far too many Ontarians are stuck in bad jobs with little hope of making them better. Dangerous jobs. Dead-end jobs. Jobs where you don’t get paid what you are owed. Jobs that exploit migrant workers. Jobs that pay so low, you can work full-time and still rank among the working poor. Working two or three jobs, not knowing what shifts or how many hours you have to work in any given week — it makes it hard to plan the week or to put food on the table, let alone try to help your kids with their homework. Jobs that can’t sustain a family. Jobs that can’t sustain a community. We can do better than this.

The 2008 worldwide recession knocked Ontario’s economy on its knees. Post-recession, the focus has been on the number of jobs created instead of talk-ing about the quality of those new jobs.

We know many of these jobs are tempo-rary, part time, or self-employment; yet many of the jobs we lost were full-time, permanent jobs.

Even before the recession, a growing number of Ontarians were experiencing a deeper level of income and job insecu-rity than they had in a generation. The gap between the rich and the rest of us got worse, the middle class was feeling squeezed, and Ontario’s poor fell further behind. Some have done better than oth-ers. Some, such as racialized Canadians, Aboriginal peoples and new immigrants, have been left behind as Ontario’s labour market becomes more polarized. The conventional wisdom is that a job is the ticket out of poverty but, in real-ity, one in three Ontario children living in poverty have families with at least one parent who works full-time. Our chal-lenge is to improve the quality of the jobs that already exist in Ontario and to create the conditions for even better jobs in the future — so that our children and grandchildren can enjoy a better quality of life.

To hand the next generation of workers a better work life, we need to grapple with the mistakes of the past. For at least a decade, our investment in training has

been focused on preparing just-in-time workers with just-in-time training to do just-in-time work. As Ontario stumbles out of recession, it’s time to shift the focus and change the pattern from tinkering with people’s resumes to providing the kind of skills training workers really need to improve their chances. It’s time to invest in On-tario’s workforce by creating career pathways and ensuring job mobility. The experiment of putting labour mar-ket policies on autopilot has failed. It is time to update our approach, our poli-cies, and our laws so that we have 21st century tools to build the good jobs of the future. Governments can take action to support the creation of good jobs — the kind that sustain families and offer a pathway out of poverty for those still on the sidelines.

Here are six good ideas that Ontario’s political parties should take up to sup-port good jobs in Ontario.

Talking About Jobs

LOCAL JOB MATCHMAKING

THE

RIGHT

JOB LEARNING

PARTNERSHIPS

A BETTER

EMPLOYMET

STANDARDS ACT

THE RIGHTTO CHOOSE A

UNION

1. LOCAL JOB MATCHMAKING.

Imagine how different things would be if employers, unions, workers, advocates and government acted like they’re playing on the same team, working together to enhance existing jobs and create new ones. Imagine employment programs that were tailored to what the people and businesses in your community really need. Imagine training programs that give people the supports they need to change careers or re-enter the labour market and find a better job. It’s time to repair the mismatch between skills and jobs in Ontario — employers who can’t find the right people and people who can’t find the right job. Whether it’s skills training and upgrading, social or economic development, let’s get all sectors in Ontario working together from the same playbook. Together, we can build the Ontario we want.

2. A NEW AND IMPROVED EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS ACT.

The Employment Standards Act is the safety net for most workers in Ontario.

It sets the minimum standards for our work lives: the minimum wages we can expect to earn, the maximum hours we can be forced to work, the number of va-cations and sick days we’ve earned, and the rules in place when we quit or are fired. It may set the minimum standard for work, but the Employment Standards Act was written to reflect workplace issues of yesteryear. More of us are working in ways that mean we are not protected by the Act. It’s time for an upgrade. But modernizing the laws that guide how we work in Ontario isn’t enough — because a law without teeth is, well, toothless. Both the law and its enforce-ment need to be updated to ensure that all employees in Ontario are protected. Imagine if all workers had confi-dence that they could rely on a bedrock of worker protection laws that had real teeth, were regularly enforced, and re-flected today’s labour market. Ontarians are a hard-working people. If the jobs are there, they will take them; but every worker deserves to know their rights are protected, through a modern-ized Employment Standards Act — pro-tections that reflect the demands on the 21st century worker.

3. PARTNERSHIPS FOR WORKPLACE-BASED LEARNING.

Programs that offer literacy and basic skills training in the workplace provide workers with the learning opportuni-ties they need. They result in increased productivity, improved health and safety on the job, and greater job mobility for workers. These programs work best when every-one — employers, employees, unions, literacy organizations and governments — join forces to create workplace-based learning opportunities that fill a real lo-cal need. It can’t happen, however, without gov-ernment leadership. Adequate govern-ment funding for infrastructure support is the glue that holds these partnerships together.

4. THE RIGHT JOB FOR INTERNATIONALLY TRAINED PROFESSIONALS.

We know the problem well: doctors trained overseas are driving taxis at a time when we have a shortage; interna-tionally-educated engineers are mopping floors at a time when our roads are crum-bling.

Six Good Ideas About Jobs

PROTECTION FOR MIGRANT WORKERS

Ontario attracts some of the most ed-ucated, creative and innovative people from every corner of the world. But we’re not doing enough to maximize their con-tribution to the economy. Imagine how different things would be if our provincial government built on existing programs to give internationally educated professionals the tools they need to adapt their skills and transition more readily into our job market. Then every worker is able to use all of the skills they possess to contribute to a more vi-brant Ontario. Imagine an expansion of paid intern-ships that give newcomers the Canadi-an work experience employers say they need; a provincial mentorship program to help new Canadians build the social networks that so many of us take for granted. Imagine employers getting the help they need to find the talent they’re look-ing for and to recruit, assess, integrate and retain employees with training and experience gained overseas.

5. THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE A UNION.

After the Second World War, employers and workers reached a temporary con-sensus that allowed Ontarians to exer-cise their basic right to join a union if they choose — a right that’s protected by the constitution. Without a union, when problems arise in the workplace, workers are on their own. Unions are there to assist workers along the way, just like an agent would assist a hockey player in bargaining his or her rights with an employer. Joining a union is how workers in Ontario have, historically, turned bad, poorly paid, dangerous jobs — in mines, in factories — into better jobs, with better pay, better hours, and better benefits. But changes in the labour market and government policies have made it harder for workers who most need the protection of a union to join one. Imagine an amended Labour Rela-tions Act that provides workers with a meaningful way to exercise their consti-tutional right to organize a union in the 21st century economy.

6. BETTER PROTECTION FOR MIGRANT WORKERS.

They travel great distances leaving their own families behind to take care of our kids and our parents and grow our food, yet we treat them as cheap and dispos-able labour and leave them open to seri-ous abuse and exploitation. Imagine what Ontario would look like if we extended workplace protections for migrant workers so they could exercise their rights without fear of being deported. In the case of temporary migrant work-ers, these protections include very basic rights, such as protection from hav-ing passports and personal documents seized by their employers, and putting an end to the current practice of allow-ing employers to charge temporary mi-grant workers for the cost of job recruit-ment. How we treat our most vulnerable workers is a reflection of how our society regards the basic Canadian values of de-cency and fairness. Ontario was built on the premise that all workers would have equal access to opportunity. It’s part of what makes On-tario such a great province to live in.

www.talkingaboutjobs.ca