Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Canada is facing a wave of retirements driven by workers in high-pressure sectors, with an increasing number retiring before they turn 65.
A new analysis of labour force survey data by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) found that 73,000 more people retired in the year ending August 2022 compared to a year earlier, a jump of 32 per cent.
Two-thirds of those excess retirements were in four industries: health care, construction, retail trade, and education and social assistance.
Senior economist David Macdonald said it's highly unusual to see retirements at this level. But a closer look at some of the industries in question paints a picture of burnout, stress and ongoing pandemic difficulties leading to workers retiring earlier than they perhaps planned.
While retirements are expected to go up gradually as baby boomers retire, 2022 is seeing a clear spike, said Macdonald.
"This is very focused on some specific areas, which … makes it more of a short-term trend," he said.
The retirement wave began earlier in 2022, Macdonald found. By April 2022, retirements in health care in a year had almost doubled, with 19,000 excess retirements compared with a year earlier.
This likely means there's a wave of highly skilled nurses leaving the profession, perhaps due to burnout after two years of the pandemic, said Macdonald.
Canada's most populous province is also driving the retirement wave, making up 66 per cent of the extra retirements in the year ending August despite having less than 40 per cent of Canada's workers. Teachers retired in droves; two-thirds of extra retirements in education were in Ontario.
Retirement in teaching drove the trend in the year ending August; 21,000 of the 73,000 additional retirements were in education services.
Wage increases in Ontario's public sector have been restricted by Bill 124, which may be a factor in health care and education workers deciding they've had enough, said Macdonald.
"There's a breaking point," he said.
"Those professions have not returned to normal. They are substantially different from how they were in 2019."
In the year ending June, extra retirements in retail trade peaked with an extra 13,000 workers. In July, it was construction that saw retirements jump.
It's not just the boomer generation that's contributing to this wave, either. A surprising number of workers younger than 65 are retiring early, said Macdonald.
In August 2021, the largest age group retiring were between 65 and 69, at 38 per cent of total retirements. A year later, that group made up 33 per cent of retiring workers, while the next youngest group of workers aged 60 to 64 had gone up three percentage points to 31 per cent. Retirements among workers 55 to 59 also went up.
"People are retiring, not because they're hitting 65, they're retiring for some other reason," said Macdonald.
There was also a wave of retirements at the beginning of the pandemic, as many workers decided to retire early instead of going through unemployment, he said.
If Canada goes into a recession, something similar might happen in some sectors, such as finance or real estate, said Macdonald.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published September 30, 2022.
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
A group of demonstrators were kicked out of the legislature after a second NDP motion calling for unanimous consent to reverse a ban on the keffiyeh failed to pass.
The RCMP says it has uncovered a plot by two men in Montreal to sell Chinese drones and military equipment to Libya illegally.
The U.S. Justice Department announced a US$138.7 million settlement Tuesday with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of grossly mishandling allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016, a critical time gap that allowed the sports doctor to continue to prey on victims before his arrest.
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
A 35-year-old man wanted in connection with the murder of Toronto resident 29-year-old Sharmar Powell-Flowers nine months ago has topped the list of the BOLO program’s 25 most wanted fugitives across Canada, police announced Tuesday.
The Canadian Medical Association is asking the federal government to reconsider its proposed changes to capital gains taxation, arguing it will affect doctors' retirement savings.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.