Recently, there has been a lot of writing about the correlation between housing and immigration in Toronto and the rest of Canada.
We find this too simplistic.
Whether Canada is in a population trap or not, it’s clear that infrastructure, housing, and services such as hospital care are stretched thin, particularly in Toronto. Capital has and will continue to be redirected from investments in enterprises to address these issues.
Considering these circumstances, it’s unrealistic to expect the local economy’s employment capacity not to be similarly stretched. Mitigation is often not realistic. The common law requires employees to search for comparable employment, not lesser jobs, and the burden of proving failure to mitigate lies with the employer, not the employee. Employers who use delay as a negotiation tactic risk non-settlement, as employees are aware of substantial court cost awards.
Why would any employer pay the full cost of the claim, substantial costs to the employee’s counsel, as well as their own lawyer’s fees when they could take advantage of uncertainty around mitigation at the outset and settle for less than the full value of the claim?
Smart employers anticipate and react to a slowdown or recession, not the artificial post-COVID labour shortage.
After all, the Bank of Canada isn’t lowering rates because the economy is booming.
Get excellent advice.
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Chris Robertson, B.A., LL.B.
Chris Robertson, B.A., LL.B.