Renewing the Social Contract: Economic Recovery in Canada from COVID-19, released in December 2020, details four categories of recommended economic response from Provincial and Federal governments. These categories are: “Renewing the Social Contract, Reinvigorating the Economy, Enabling Innovation, and Improving Crisis Policy Responses”.
Included in the “Priority Recommendations” under “Renewing the Social Contract” is the following:
- Establish a basic income guarantee (BIG) that is universally available to provide adequate income support to all persons and be responsive to economic shocks. (Emphasis added).
- Reform provincial and federal labour codes to ensure paid sick leave, as this is an essential public-health policy to support a more resilient economy.
- Work with provinces and territories to establish universal access to childcare that provides Early Childhood Education, to protect parents and especially mothers’ opportunities for labour force participation.
- Implement a comprehensive tax reform that enhances the fairness of taxes by broadening the tax base to treat all capital income on a par with earnings, and address intergenerational transmission of wealth inequality by re-instituting an inheritance tax.
You can access the report through the link above, or through the RSC’s website here.