Carney warns of jobs ‘massacre’

Must ‘get a grip’ on automation, BoE chief says

The Bank of England may be moving toward an interestrate increase, but Governor Mark Carney has even more global topics on his mind.

Less than a week after comments that addressed climate change — albeit from the financial stability point of view — Carney used a speech in Toronto to address the impact of technology and how workers and the very social structure of the developed world need to adapt.

He said there are a lot of “routine cognitive jobs,” at risk, in what he termed a “massacre of the Dilberts” — a reference to the satirical American comic strip about office workers.

Availability of housing may be a problem, but stronger laws that protect tenants could make a difference until supply catches up with demand, he said.

Dan Garrison, Vancouver’s assistant director of housing policy, said there is a lot of older housing stock that needs to be updated but the city has tougher rules than the province when it comes to redeveloping rental properties.

“We know that renters in the city are certainly feeling vulnerable to development pressure,” Garrison said. “We are trying to strike a balance.”

Landlords in Vancouver who evict their tenants are required to pay several months rent, assist in relocating them within the city, and pay for moving costs, he said. Developers would also have to give previous tenants the opportunity to move back into the new building at a discounted rate.

Not all jurisdictions share these policies.

The federal government announced a national housing strategy last fall that commits $40 billion over 10 years to new units and upgrades of aging properties, including loans to encourage developers to build new housing geared toward modestto middle-income families.

The provinces and territories have agreed to fund a key piece of the housing strategy by spending billions to repair and build social housing units and create a new rental benefit. It adds about 50,000 units to the system and repairs 60,000 more, while promoting construction of mixed-income and mixed-use residential developments.