Armine Yalnizyan
Armine Yalnizyan | |
---|---|
Nationality | Canadian |
Citizenship | Canada |
Academic career | |
Institution | Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives |
Alma mater | Glendon College Université de Bordeaux University of Toronto |
Awards | Morley Gunderson Prize |
Website | http://behindthenumbers.ca |
Armine Yalnizyan is a Canadian economist and writer, who was a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives from 2008 to 2017.[1] She appeared regularly on Lang and O'Leary Exchange, CBC's Metro Morning, and contributed regularly to the "Economy Lab" at the Globe and Mail. She is currently a Fellow with the Atkinson Foundation doing collaborative research on the future of workers in a period of technological change. Her work focuses on "social and economic factors that determine our health and well being".[2] In 2012, the CBC described her, as one of Canada's "leading progressive economists."[3]
Early years and education
Yalnizyan came to Canada as a child. Her parents were Armenian immigrants. Her grandparents were killed in the Armenian Genocide (1914–1923).[4] She grew up in Toronto.[3]
She completed a bilingual honours degree in economics from Glendon College, a York University federated campus in Toronto, Ontario, including a year of economics[5] at Université de Bordeaux, France. she received a Masters of Industrial Relations from the University of Toronto in 1985.[3][4][6]
Career
One of Yalnizyan's first job as an economist was in 1980's with the Social Planning Council of Metropolitan Toronto. At that time the job market was changing and many full-time jobs were being lost. The Council had been working on the de-industrialization of Toronto as many Toronto residents sought jobs that were nonexistent. After joining the Social Planning Council, Yalnizyan published a "primer on the growing gap" that was financed by the Atkinson foundation.[4]
In 2010 she co-founded the Globe and Mail's "Economy Lab",[5] where Canadian economists and Globe and Mail staff examine current issues in the global economy in-depth.[7] She contributed regularly to the Globe and Mail [5][8][9]
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Yalnizyan began her association with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in 1993.[5] By 1994, when the centre began to publish their Alternative Federal Budget, she was a research associate.[10] In 1998, while working as lead researcher at the Toronto-based Centre for Social Justice, she completed an in-depth 148-page report as part of the Growing Gap Project, entitled "The Growing Gap: Growing Inequality between Rich and Poor."[11][Notes 1] The Growing Gap Project, which was funded by Atkinson Charitable Foundation[11]: v the SJC's first major project, documented the increasing income and wealth gap, the moderating role of government and potential public policy alternatives.[11]: i
In 2008 she joined CCPA as Senior Economist to develop the Growing Gap Project further.[3][10] She remained with CCPA until 2017.[2] She was a regular contributor to CCPA's Behind the numbers.[12]
Metro Morning with Matt Galloway
In 2012 she became a regular bi-weekly business commentator on the CBC's number one morning show Metro Morning at CBLA-FM in Toronto[13] with Matt Galloway[3][Notes 2] which reaches a "million listeners in the Greater Toronto Area."[5]
Lang and O'Leary Exchange
Yalnizyan was a regular guest on the weekly "Big Picture Panel", a feature of CBC-TV's Lang and O'Leary Exchange with Amanda Lang and Kevin O'Leary.[5][14]
Atkinson Foundation
On May 13, 2018 the Atkinson Foundation announced that Yalnizyan accepted a two-year fellowship—Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers—to for collaborative research on "policy innovation for inclusive economic growth in an era of rapid technological change".[15]
In August 2018 Yalnizyan was asked to beeconomic policy advisor to Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development Canada Louise Levonia. She will continue her work on "policy responses to the changing nature of work".[16]
Board memberships
Yalnizyan was on the board of the Ottawa-based Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC). In 2010 she served on the Research Advisory Committee of Social Planning Toronto.[10] She had served as their program director from 1987 to 1997, and their Director of Research in 2006 and 2007.[10] She was an Advisory Board member for the Canadian Institutes for Health Research's Institute of Population and Public Health (CIHR/IPPH).[17] She is President of the Canadian Association for Business Economics.[5]
Awards
Yalnizyan was honoured with the first Atkinson Economic Justice Award in 2002[15] and the University of Toronto's Morley Gunderson Prize in 2003.[10]
Themes
By 2010, Yalnizyan had "tracked trends in labour markets, income distribution, government budgets and access to services (particularly training and health care) for over 20 years."[10] Her focus has been on "social and economic factors that determine our health and well being",[2] including Affordable housing in Canada[18] [19] poverty in Canada, minimum wage,[20] and basic services.[21] In her 2017 Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives article on redistribution, Yalnizyan wrote that basic income models were market-based and focused on increasing money to access market freedom and choice. Yalnizyan stressed the health-based basic service approach through which more public services are provided that "are not contingent on income." This would provide "more freedom from the market".[21] She cites as examples, "care provided by publicly insured doctors and hospitals and taxpayer-funded public schools dramatically reduce poverty and inequality."[21]
Publications
Yalnizyan contributed to Straight Goods, a Canadian news magazine, that was online from 2000 to 2013, along with Mel Watkins, Stephen Lewis, Linda McQuaig, Aaron Freeman, Gordon Guyatt, Cathy Crowe, Stewart Steinhauer and Charles Gordon.
Controversies
In March 1999, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein sent a letter of complaint to Rod Fraser, the University of Alberta's President after Yalnizyan, who was then at Toronto's Centre for Social Justice, presented a paper at the Parkland Institute's "Poverty Amidst Plenty" conference in which she used Statistics Canada data and the research of two University of Lethbridge academics to argue the gap between rich and poor in Alberta was growing faster than in any other Canadian province "despite a rapidly growing economy".[22] In an immediate response, Klein said Parkdland Institute of being "factually challenged", "one-sided and ideologically biased." Fraser defended the Parkland Institute and free speech, saying that the "university would not be intimidated by Klein's criticism, and would continue to foster a climate of open debate."[22]
Notes
- ^ The Centre for Social Justice was founded in 1997 to continue the work of the Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice. The Growing Gap Project was funded by the Atkinson Charitable Foundation (Yalnizyan 1998:v.5).
- ^ Topics included "Whether Stephen Poloz will raise interest rates" (June 27, 2018),
References
- ^ Habib, Marlene (October 13, 2011). "Occupy Canada rallies spread in economic 'awakening'". CBC.ca. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- ^ a b c "Armine Yalnizyan". Upstream. Bio. nd. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e "About Armine Yalnizyan". CBC News. May 13, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- ^ a b c "Armine Yalnizyan on Economics, Equality and Democracy". TVO Channel via YouTube. May 10, 2011. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Profile". Maytree. nd. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- ^ "Armine Yalnizyan (MIR 1985)". Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources. Toronto, Ontario. nd. Archived from the original on August 9, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
- ^ Gilroy, Rob (September 30, 2010). "Welcome to Economy Lab". Globe and Mail. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- ^ Yalnizyan, Armine; Johal, Sunil (April 25, 2018). "Race to the top: Inclusive growth is the new growth model". Globe and Mail. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- ^ Yalnizyan, Armine (June 27, 2018). "Abandoning the dairy supply-management system would create more problems than solutions". Globe and Mail. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f "Armine Yalnizyan". Acadia University. Wolfville, Nova Scotia. 2010. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- ^ a b c Yalnizyan, Armine (October 1998). The Growing Gap: Growing Inequality between Rich and Poor (PDF) (Report). Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). p. 148. ISBN 0-9684032-1-2. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- ^ "Armine Yalnizyan". CCPA. Behind the Numbers. nd. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- ^ "Metro Morning's new voice, new view". Toronto Star, February 9, 2010.
- ^ "Kevin O'Leary quits CBC's 'The Lang and O'Leary Exchange' to join rival network". National Post. August 11, 2014. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
- ^ a b Murphy, Colette (May 13, 2018). "The Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers". Atkinson Foundation. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- ^ "Armine Yalnizyan on Twitter: Thrilled to announce I've been asked to be economic policy advisor for the Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development Canada. Over the next year will work on policy responses to the changing nature of work. #FutureOfWorkers #DreamJob What a time to do this! Can't wait!"". twitter.com. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
- ^ "Social media for population and public health researchers (webinar)". CIHR. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
- ^ Yalnizyan, Armine (2004). Affordable Housing: Squandering Canada's Surplus: Opting for debt reduction and "scarcity by design" (PDF). Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Report). Toronto, Ontario. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
- ^ Yalnizyan, Armine (December 2010). The Rise of Canada's Richest 1% (PDF) (Report). Ottawa, ON: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 30, 2012. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
- ^ Yalnizyan, Armine (October 15, 2016). "Boosting minimum wages, boosting the economy from the bottom up". CCPA. Behind the Numbers. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- ^ a b c Yalnizyan, Armine (January 1, 2017). "Redistribution through a basic income: Are we better off when we have more income, or need less of it?". Retrieved August 12, 2018.
- ^ a b McMaster, Geoff (March 12, 1999). "President defends Parkland Institute: Freedom of expression applies on and off campus". Folio. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
Fraser's remarks were made in the wake of a letter sent to him last week from Klein criticizing the Parkland Institute, a university-funded, left-wing think tank established in January, 1997 to counter right-wing think tanks such as the Fraser and C.D. Howe institutes.