Four-day work week not on PM’S agenda

The idea of a four-day work week has gained more support as Canadians near the end of Month 3 in coronavirus lockdown, but don’t expect three-day weekends just yet, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

“Right now we’re very much focused on getting through this particular crisis, and we’ll have plenty of time to talk about particularly creative ideas on moving forward, but I’m not going to speculate on what any of them might be,” he said in a response to a question from a reporter during his daily briefing on Wednesday.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recently floated the idea of a four-day work week in a Facebook live video.

Ardern said it would be a boost to New Zealand’s tourism sector, which employs 15 per cent of the population and contributes about $13.8 billion to the country’s gross domestic product. With the drop in the number of international visitors, domestic travellers could make up the difference.

Similarly, in Canada tourism plays an important role in the economy, where it’s valued at $102 billion a year. PRE-COVID-19, it was the country’s fifth-largest sector, outpacing telecommunications and mining, and employing 1.8 million Canadians.

“I hear lots of people suggesting we should have a four-day week. Ultimately that really sits between employers and employees, but as I’ve said, there’s lots of things we’ve learned about COVID and just that flexibility of people working from home, the productivity that can be driven out of it,” Ardern said.

“Really encourage people to think about, if they’re an employer and in a position to do so, to think about whether or not that is something that would work for their workplace because it certainly would help tourism all around the country.”