With federal pandemic support scheduled to end on Oct. 23, some employment services in Wellington County are seeing an increase in clients accessing their programs and services, while other agencies are calling for an extension to the benefits or a transition to a universal basic income.
A recent uptick in community members using the programs and services offered by 2nd Chance Employment Counselling has been noted by Chris Baginski-Hansen, executive director at Second Chance Employment Counselling (Wellington) Inc. who said the increase began within the last six weeks
This has resulted in a 10 per cent increase in client activity from August to September.
“We have seen a huge increase in the number of people accessing training,” said Baginski-Hansen. “At the end of September, 19 per cent of the files we closed was to training. That is huge, we haven’t seen training numbers like that since the recession.”
Pre-pandemic, that number tended to float around 10 per cent, sometimes jumping closer to 12 per cent.
“We talk a lot about the businesses being affected, and they have been horrifically affected, but we forget about all those employees who went to work for a month and got laid off again, they as well had no stability,” said Baginski-Hansen. “They as well suffered hugely financially and in terms of their mental health. For many, I think they just didn’t want the stop and start again.”
The Canadian government extended the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB), program in July, with the newest extension adding four weeks and allowing for those utilizing the pandemic response to remain in the program until Oct. 23.
At the termination date in October, CRB will have run for 54 weeks.
As of Thursday, the Canadian government has not announced an extension of the benefits, which has raised the concerns of Dominica McPherson, coordinator of the Guelph & Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination, who said there is an urgent need to extend these benefits for the people who are relying on them while also thinking long term.
“I think the COVID-19 pandemic has brought attention to the gaping holes in our social safety net that existed in our social safety net before the pandemic, and programs like CRB have been put in place to bridge these gaps but the crisis isn’t over and neither is need this type of support,” said McPherson.
And while these programs solved the urgent needs of the people who relied on them, McPherson said there needs to be a long-term solution implemented such as a universal basic income.
“We know that the solution is decent work that offers fair wages and fair working conditions, and it is also essential that governments improve programs like EI and act to implement a basic income,” said McPherson. “It is essential that everyone can meet their basic needs and live with dignity.”
The end of the benefits and transition of workers into the workforce could offer a rare opportunity for workers to be more selective with where they want employment.
Charlene Hofbauer, executive director of the Workforce Planning Board of Waterloo Wellington Dufferin said the pandemic has shifted the priorities of the workforce and job seekers, meaning some factors such as what people want from work, where they want to work, as well as the importance of pay and how co-workers interact with each other will be a factor in the return to work later this month.
“The impact of these workers returning will really depend on the skill sets that they bring with them and which jobs they are seeking,” said Hofbauer.
“For some industries, these returning workers may help fill vacancies that have been unfilled for a while. Other industries will not see any impact from these returning workers as they are seeking skills that are specialized or experience that these returning workers may not have. In combination with this will be what jobs those job seekers want.”
Hofbauer said the team also noticed that traffic on findyourjob.ca increased between July and August.
