Low Fertility Rate

1971 was the last time in Canada where the fertility rate matched the replacement level. The fertility rate tells us how many hypothetical children a female between the age of 15 and 49 will have. The replacement level tells us where this rate needs to be in order to replace our aging population. In essence if the fertility rate remains below the replacement level for a long period of time as it has in Canada, the population will naturally begin to shrink without immigration. It is thanks to our high immigration levels that Canada’s population is actually growing rather than shrinking.

Although our population may be growing, it is still not growing fast enough to replace all the retiring baby boomers in the job market. This is not only putting extra pressure on corporate pension plans and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) but also causing our unemployment rates to drop to record lows as our overall economy is thriving.

Low Unemployment Rate

Last month the Canadian economy added 27,700 more jobs causing the unemployment rate in Canada to fall to a record low 5.4%. This is following an April where the economy added a record 106,500 jobs. Although the job numbers of May when broken down aren’t as great as they are on the surface, for the month of April, the numbers were amazing from every angle and breakdown. Such low unemployment is amazing right? Yes in a sense it means wages will start going up and the general public will benefit in the short-term.

However, an unemployment rate that is too low also means businesses will struggle to find good talent to fill there roles and that eventually the businesses will not be able to perform at full capacity because of the lack of full employment. Businesses will instead need to scale down if they are not able to find the right people for these jobs. In a sense the Canadian economy will be performing so well it will burn out. Immigrants are the reason our GDP and economy are growing while allowing Canada to maintain a healthy unemployment rate. Without immigration, less people in Canada would be employed so less people would be spending there hard earned dollars in our local economy and thus it would be unlikely that Canada’s economy would be able to maintain it’s growth rate without coming to a crashing halt.

The US Unemployment Rate

Many people are quick to point out that the US unemployment rate is much lower than Canada’s so if they burnout problem is real then we must be still far away from that burnout level. There is 1 very important thing to note here, the US and Canada calculate there unemployment rates very differently. In both Canada and US the very basic definition of being unemployed is the same.

To be considered “Unemployed” a survey respondent must not have done any work for pay during a particular week of the survey month, must be available for work, and – most crucially – must have done something to find a job during the last four weeks. – The Globe and Mail

However where the key difference comes into play is what qualifies as doing something to search for a job. In the US only active searching qualifies you to meet this criteria whereas in Canada both active and passive (simply browsing through job listings) searching qualifies you for this. For more details on the differences you can read this Globe and Mail article.

Cognitive Diversity

Canadian are no stranger to diversity in the traditional sense. As a country we embrace different types of people, diversity and multiculturalism is a part of Canada. However, cognitive diversity is something many people do not understand. While someone that is born or raised in Canada with a diverse background adds significant value to the workplace, we all went to the same elementary and high schools and were taught to think the same way. That is not to say differences in age, gender and ethnicity do not provide cognitive diversity. However, people arriving to Canada from various countries can bring very different ways of thinking and doing things. This creates cognitive diversity in the workplace and allows Canadian companies to better succeed.

A high degree of cognitive diversity could generate accelerated learning and performance in the face of new, uncertain, and complex situations, as in the case of the execution problem we set for our executives. – Harvard Business Review

Sources: Bloomberg; CTV News; CBC; CIC News; Bank of Canada; The Globe and Mail; The Globe and Mail; Statistics Canada; Miles Corak; Forbes; Forbes; Emergenetics; The Star; HBR; Wikipedia Commons;

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Translink has a terrible brand image in the Greater Vancouver area and they have done very little to try and repair that. On top of that the attempts they have made to repair this brand image have actually made it worse. The residents of Metro Vancouver simply do not trust Translink with anything. The entire no side campaign was more of a target at why we cannot trust Translink with our money rather than why we don’t need this tax. One of the most important aspects of Marketing is brand image, if your prospective customers (or in this case voters) don’t like your company or the way it operates they will always choose against you. In this case many people don’t like Translink so they voted against giving them an additional $250 million a year for 10 years.

I’m not hear to say whether I think this bad image is earned or not because that does not matter, what matters is they have a bad brand image and this needs to be fixed. The yes side of the campaign spent potentially millions of dollars trying to convince people of the benefits and why they should vote yes but all in vain because people were voting against Translink not against improvements to infrastructure. Many companies do not realize how important brand image really is but they should try to think about it from a consumer point of view. If you really hate a company are you going to buy their product if you have a choice? If you give consumers a choice and have a brand image like Translink’s the odds are not in your favour.

Yes I’m sure some of these people did vote no against the tax all together not Translink but if Translink had a better image the vote would have been a yes more likely. Translink needs to put in major work on improving their image. Doing things like firing the CEO that everyone hates for a failed compass card roll-out but keeping him as a consultant with full salary and hiring an interim CEO with the same pay really does not help with improving your image. Crown Corporations, companies like BC Ferries and Translink which are 100% owned by the government (basically Crown Corporations), and not for profit companies always come under extra scrutiny for these types of things and should try to be more careful where their image is concerned. Not for profit companies are very careful with their images but Crown Corporations are basically monopolies so they usually don’t care because if you want to take a bus from UBC to Metrotown Translink is your only option. It is only at times like this when they realize that they should have cared.

Update: A poll that took place the day after the results came in (July 3rd) indicates exactly what I have stated above. 76% of those who voted no did so because of their lack of faith in Translink. 62% said that the way Translink operates needs to be reformed. Two things stood out to me from this poll and slightly surprised me. 72% of yes voters said they did not trust Translink either but basically said the pros outweighed the cons and 53% of no voters also said they don’t trust the Mayors’ Council either. You can read more about the poll at the second source link below.

Source: BIV; BIV 2 (Update)

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