< Atkinson Fellows | Armine Yalnizyan

Armine Yalnizyan

“We’ve never been so close to tackling our biggest challenges. We could yoke the strengths of a powerful new cohort of young workers and breathtaking technologies to the momentum of population aging, extreme climate events and care systems in crisis. We could make every job a good job, the foundation of tackling everything else.”

Armine Yalnizyan is a leading voice on Canada’s economic scene. She is the Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers and writes a bi-weekly business column for the Toronto Star. She served as a senior economic policy advisor to the federal Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development Canada in 2018 and 2019, and has been a member of a high-level task group on women in the economy convened by the federal Ministers of Finance and Middle Class Prosperity during the pandemic. Armine helped shape and advance the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Inequality Project from 2006 to 2016, provided weekly business commentary for CBC from 2011 to 2018, and served as Vice President and President of the Canadian Association for Business Economics from 2013 to 2019.

Armine was named to Macleans’ 2022 Power List as “the caring persons’ economist.” Read some of the innovative policy proposals that Armine and her collaborators have put forward.

Cover Image: Maximizing Potential

Maximizing Potential

Framework for Recovery in a Slow Growth Economy

This memorandum was sent to select cabinet ministers, the Prime Minister's Office, and the Privy Council Office on Friday September 5, 2020. It offered a framework for recovery from the COVID-19 economic crisis on three pillars: jobs, incomes, and public services.

Cover Image: A Year-By-Year Approach to Investing in Early Learning and Child Care

A Year-By-Year Approach to Investing in Early Learning and Child Care

Articulating a Five Year Plan for Federal Funding

This memorandum was sent to the Ministry of Finance, the Privy Council Office, and the Prime Minister’s Office on October 16, 2020. It set out a five year approach for federal funding to expand access to affordable, high-quality care.

Cover Image: Reforming EI for the 21st Century

Reforming EI for the 21st Century

This memorandum was sent to select Cabinet Ministers, the Prime Minister's Office, and the Privy Council Office on October 26, 2021. It details urgent reforms needed to Canada's employment insurance system with regards to access and eligibility, benefit levels, benefit durations, and financing by the federal government.

The opinions expressed by the Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers do not represent those of the Atkinson Foundation.

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17 Apr 23

Regularizing undocumented workers would benefit us all

The enormous economic benefits are obvious. So why is Canada dragging its heels on regularizing undocumented workers?

5 Apr 23

Federal budget a swing and a miss

Sadly, Budget 2023 failed to read the room and certainly missed most of the women in the room — unexpected from one of the most feminist governments Canada has ever had.

28 Mar 23

An Ontario doctor’s wait-list database is saving patient lives

While it hasn’t added supply to the system, it has made the supply visible, shortening wait times for patients lucky enough to know what their options are.

13 Mar 23

How much progress have women made in the workplace? 46 facts to mark 46 years of International Women’s Day

Women are more likely to be cashiers, but less likely to be CEOs than guys named Mark. We’ve come so far — but still have a long way to go.

27 Feb 23

Affordability — not inflation — is the biggest crisis Canada’s economy faces today

Five fiscal approaches could lower costs, tackle long-term affordability, and create more economic resilience.

21 Feb 23

In health care it is not privatization to fear, it’s profitization

We are told to welcome, not fear, more for-profit care; that more care is the cure for what ails us. This claim is neither new nor true.

13 Feb 23

Why isn’t Canada using centralized health care wait-lists?

We’ve got the tools to fix health care problems. What we’re missing is the political will.

6 Feb 23

Why monetary policy for the 2020s must be pro-worker

Rate hikes are not driving inflation down effectively, but they are costing workers jobs and suppressing wage growth.

9 Jan 23

Wage growth and inflation: A case for improving workers’ lives

Right now the worry for many workers is that wages are not keeping up with inflation. Ironically, the other worry is that wages will keep up with inflation.

19 Dec 22

The Bank of Canada says ‘The Plan’ always works. History says otherwise

What’s certain is The Plan — raising interest rates to halt inflation — is still The Plan. And The Plan doesn’t always work.

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