“My students at Glendon are very talented and involved in the world of international business, which worried me a little, initially. But I realized that these young people are exactly where they want to be, to find out who they want to be and what they want to achieve in life. I am giving them information about a subject which will affect them, no matter what choices they make.”
These are the words of Armine Yalnizyan, Glendon College alumna (1983), Senior Economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and, since September, a visiting fellow at The Glendon School of Public and International Affairs. She teaches Political Economics of Income Inequality in Canada, in different parts of Canada, for subgroups in the country, and also comparing Canada with the rest of the world. In addition to income inequality and income concentration in the hands of a small group, she firmly believes that it is important to be familiar with many political elements. She therefore tries to show the political consequences of this situation not only for income redistribution, but also for issues of justice and equity which affect us all and the constraints that this inequality imposes on future economic growth.
A unique journey
When asked to describe her journey since leaving Glendon, Armine Yalnizyan says that her career was initially derailed by the severe recession of 1981-1982. As an economics graduate magna cum laude and also bilingual, the only way she could earn a living was to continue her education at the postgraduate level. She explains: “What was wonderful in all this was that I became Sylvia Ostry’s research assistant; she was my heroine when I was studying Economics as an undergraduate. She was the Chief Statistician at Statistics Canada, wrote books on labour market economics in Canada, headed up the Economic Council of Canada and finally became Chief Economist at the OECD. When I worked for her, she was returning from Paris and was looking for a bilingual research assistant; she opened her door to me – and opened my mind.” Ms. Yalnizyan’s first full-time job was with the City of Toronto Social Planning Council.
While her fellow economics students went to work in banks or large companies, Armine was more interested in the human side of the field, more specifically changes in the labour market which were taking place quickly at that time. Her fellow economists called her the “social worker.” At that time, if you worked in the world of money, you were a “serious” economist.
After 18 months of working at the Toronto Social Planning Council, a very significant transformation of the labour market took place. There was the Free Trade Agreement in 1988, a federal election on the promise of free trade and Brian Mulroney’s affirmation at that time that our social programs were “a sacred trust.” Armine Yalnizyan continues: “Six months after his re-election, he set about relieving the federal government from the burden of funding the unemployment insurance program. That made Canada one of only two countries not to have a three-way unemployment insurance program (funded by employers, employees and the government) to protect people during periods of economic contraction.”
Growing income inequality
With changes in public policy and after seeing that she was not highly regarded by her fellow economists and with changes in public policy, Ms. Yalnizyan became radicalized in a way. To her, the radicalization was also caused by what her employer asked her to do. “It happened that I was one of the first people to look closely at the issue of ‘hours worked.’ Early in the 1990s, countries in Europe, the US and Canada were worried about a very high level of systemic unemployment. That led to a transition in the labour market: people were working more hours, whether or not they were paid for their overtime. So, there were more work hours, not less, especially in Anglophone countries (the US, England, Australia). For its part, France chose instead to reduce the working week.
In Canada, we were an oddity in that we had both more people working more hours, meaning more than 40 hours a week, paid overtime or not, and more people working few hours, part-time. This produced income polarization, and public policy somewhat consolidated the situation,” she explains.
Ms. Yalnizyan views this situation as threatening in two ways. First, many parents worry about their children’s future standard of living. “Can we promise the next generation that they will have at least the same standard of living, wealth and prosperity as widely distributed and shared as our generation?” she asks. Threat number two: History has shown many times that it is very destabilizing to have economic growth at the same time as democracy, if people generally perceive that only a few people will benefit widely from profits that everybody contributed to. That is not a stable political trajectory. Armine Yalnizyan likes to say that the growth in income inequality, in good and bad economic periods alike, is just as unsustainable as climate change.
Ms. Yalnizyan states that the people who asked her to come and teach at Glendon College understand very clearly that growing income inequality in our societies is a challenge that is not going away. “If you want to work in public policy and international affairs, you have to know the exact and significant facts in the context of your work,” she says.
Armine Yalnizyan says she is thrilled to be in a position where she can learn from her students, and work with them to develop their understanding and critical faculty. “I do not expect them to agree with me. But I do expect them to know the facts and information, what they mean and to draw their own conclusions. I believe that to be necessary in public policy,” she concludes.
By Michel Héroux
