# How's Canada bearing the recession? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 23, 2009, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086 "2009-04-23T11:55:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/1 "2009-04-23T11:55:26Z")
I understand that Canada’s banking system wasn’t caught in any of the American and UK banking fiascos, never mind the Icelandic ones. But Canada’s economy is very dependent upon the US economy, isn’t it? So how are things in Canada? Paging **Sam Stone**. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/2 "2009-04-23T12:07:06Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I understand that Canada’s banking system wasn’t caught in any of the American and UK banking fiascos, never mind the Icelandic ones. But Canada’s economy is very dependent upon the US economy, isn’t it? So how are things in Canada? > > Paging **Sam Stone**. There’s a significant downturn, but not as severe as it is in the USA. Unemployment’s up, the federal government will run a deficit for the first time in a long time, and so on, but in every indicator it’s not as severe as south of the border. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/3 "2009-04-23T12:42:31Z")
Correct, not as bad as the U.S. but since you’re our biggest customer it is affecting us. I have personally been out of work for 4 months now, and have not received any salary for about 21/2 months. The Employment Insurance agency is so backlogged that I haven’t been able to get any money from them either. A system I’ve paid into for 25 years, and when I finally need assistance they can’t provide it. Needles to say I’m rather pissed off with the whole situation. I’ve been applying for jobs, maybe 2 or 3 qualified positions a week, since January and apart from two hopeful interviews back then have not received one single response. So, in summation, it’s not as bad as the U.S. and housing prices have also remained fairly stable, but some of us (i.e. ME!) are hurting. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/4 "2009-04-24T17:40:31Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Correct, not as bad as the U.S. but since you’re our biggest customer it is affecting us. I have personally been out of work for 4 months now, and have not received any salary for about 21/2 months. The Employment Insurance agency is so backlogged that I haven’t been able to get any money from them either. A system I’ve paid into for 25 years, and when I finally need assistance they can’t provide it. Needles to say I’m rather pissed off with the whole situation. 1. Call your MP. That’s outrageous. 2. Send me your resume. I’ll pass it around. Can’t hurt to try. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/5 "2009-04-24T21:48:32Z")
Ontario is getting hit hard. Lots of people got laid off, including me, and there’s a whole raft of programs in place for retraining. If GM or Chrysler go down, that’s a lot of retirees with uncertainty in their futures. And it’s hitting the secondary industries, the automotive parts suppliers and machine shops and plastics moulders and such. There’ve been reports of employers using the recession as an excuse to lay off ‘inconvenient’ people, like pregnant women. ([Link](http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/article/623726). I thought that kind of thinking went out with ‘pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen’, but I guess not.) There’s a hesitant movement to create ‘green jobs’, but what form that might take is unknown. I think that will happen, if it does, as a result of a deeper cultural shift, not just as a result of the employment policy _du jour_. Fortunately, I have about a year’s worth of money to live on. I’m working on Plan B and Plan C, so I have more hope than many. One of the programs offered by Employment Ontario helps to learn to set up a business. Another would send me back to school. ---
**Author:** ![lexi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lexi/32/6806_2.png) [@lexi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lexi)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/6 "2009-04-24T22:31:45Z")
My husband has been waiting on EI too, since February 15th… The system is backlogged - some people on blogs & message boards have been saying that they waited 10 to 12 weeks to get their claim. ---
**Author:** ![Stainz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Stainz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stainz)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/7 "2009-04-24T22:37:21Z")
I have two friends who have been part of a large group hire by Service Canada - their only job is to enter data in order to facilitate Employment Insurance claims. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/8 "2009-04-24T22:44:09Z")
> [@lexi](#): > > My husband has been waiting on EI too, since February 15th… The system is backlogged - some people on blogs & message boards have been saying that they waited 10 to 12 weeks to get their claim. I applied through the Service Canada website and a week or so later got a letter giving me a password, plus instructions for filing reports. When I was at the Employment Ontario orientation session yesterday, they gave me an appointment with a caseworker… in mid-June. The system is that bogged down, and according to the presenter, that’s all happened in the past six months. ---
**Author:** ![lexi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lexi/32/6806_2.png) [@lexi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lexi)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/9 "2009-04-24T23:26:36Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I applied through the Service Canada website and a week or so later got a letter giving me a password, plus instructions for filing reports. When I was at the Employment Ontario orientation session yesterday, they gave me an appointment with a caseworker… in mid-June. The system is that bogged down, and according to the presenter, that’s all happened in the past six months. Same thing, my husband got the password and has gotten reports, but the website says “no decision” - although everything looks perfectly ok otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/10 "2009-04-25T07:01:06Z")
[Bank of Canada says Credit Markets Improving](http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2441497420090424): > [@](#): > > Canadian money markets are showing signs of improving, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said on Friday, suggesting the bank and government may not need to intervene further to help fix impaired credit markets. > > Carney said that this week interbank credit spreads fell to pre-crisis levels and that over the past few weeks there have been “many signs” of improvement in money markets. > > “The direction is, at this stage, encouraging,” Carney told reporters following a G7 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers in Washington. > > “Canadian interbank spreads have fallen to levels of pre-crisis, not pre-Lehman but pre-crisis this week, which gives you a sense of how far things have moved in some markets,” he said. Canadian banks weren’t nearly as hard hit as the US banks were. We didn’t have the sub-prime mortgages issue, and our banks generally are more stable than US banks, due to more conservative federal regulation. (No banks have failed in Canada since the 80s.) So we’re feeling the effects of the recession, but without the spectre of complete economic meltdown that we hear from the US. As well, our social safety net is stronger, even if EI is backlogged. For example, our medicare system means that even if you lose your job, you don’t lose medical coverage. Which doesn’t mean it’s easy being laid-off. I hope things get better for **Sunspace** , **Leaffen** and **lexi’s** husband. ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/11 "2009-04-25T08:43:37Z")
The oil/gas industry in Alberta and BC is going down the tubes. There is virtually no new drilling going on and many service sectors have been hit severely. Our branch has laid off two-thirds of its staff and mothballed the same portion of equipment. Schlumberger, a _massive_ player, has laid off over 1000 people. The industry has essentially imploded. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/12 "2009-04-26T22:28:25Z")
Good luck guys. At least it’s not as tough as it is over here. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/13 "2009-04-27T02:11:37Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > 1. Call your MP. That’s outrageous. > > 2. Send me your resume. I’ll pass it around. Can’t hurt to try. Oh, I’ve called my M.P. and although I got a response from his office, and spoke with a representative on the phone there appears little they can do to speed up the process. The average wait time is now approximately 10 weeks and they are trying to bring back retired workers and hire new ones to help out. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/14 "2009-04-27T02:44:39Z")
Anybody know how this recession stacks up against the ones Canada went through in the early 80s and early 90s? I seem to recall unemployment in the double digits and high interest rates in those recessions. IIRC, taxes were sharply increased as well, though as I lived in Ontario in the early 90s and the Ontario government at the time was determined to tax and spend its way out of the problem, this tax oppression may have been unique to Ontario. But this time, unemployment doesn’t seem to be as high, interest rates are definitely low, and the tax returns of my wife and I are nowhere near as costly compared to what I recall paying in those past years. Of course, we’re no longer in Ontario, but I still remember what my 1990 tax return totalled–and this year’s return sends far fewer dollars on more earnings to CRA. I don’t wish to make light of current economic problems, but I’m wondering about non-anecdotal data–how are we Canadians doing relative to 1981-1983 and 1990-1992? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/15 "2009-04-27T05:26:37Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Canadian banks weren’t nearly as hard hit as the US banks were. We didn’t have the sub-prime mortgages issue, and our banks generally are more stable than US banks, due to more conservative federal regulation. (No banks have failed in Canada since the 80s.) The Canadian government also seems to have injected a lot of money into the banking system, insofar as it has apparently [bought](http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/578316) about $125 billion in mortgages from the banks. Adjusting for the relative sizes of the economies, that may be as large or larger than the US intervention into its banking system. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/16 "2009-04-27T13:17:21Z")
Even with that intervention, however, the federal government is on track to post a modest surplus this year, according to the most recent projections: [Surplus for 2008-09 ‘still a possibility’](http://www.canada.com/news/Surplus+2008+still+possibility/1532368/story.html). They’re looking at a possible surplus of a bit over a billion dollars (Canadian), which is down considerably from last year’s surplus of $12.6 billion, but it’s an improvement from the original deficit projections from last fall. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/17 "2009-04-27T14:38:16Z")
One group being affected pretty badly by all this are students; companies simply aren’t hiring for summer employment/internships. So many students haven’t been able to find jobs for this summer, and even minimum wage ones are being snapped up pretty quickly, since it’s all there is. I haven’t looked, but I don’t know what aid is/will be available to students to help them get through this (in my case, I’m older and married and we can live off my husband’s salary fairly easily. That isn’t the case for most students!) ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-canada-bearing-the-recession/494086/18 "2009-04-27T22:53:37Z")
My EI file has been updated today. Apparently I’ll get some money tomorrow. The mortgage for April will be paid, and we should be fine for May. After that, who knows? We burned through savings in February, March and April, and my RRSPs are of the locked-in variety which I seemingly can’t touch till actual retirement.