A lot of people are working — so why the labour shortage?

Plus, Ontario's 2022-23 budget and a crisis in home care [The Star] First Up [By Manuela Vega] By Manuela Vega Good morning. Here’s the latest on Ontario’s new budget, the crisis in home care and why Canada is seeing a labour shortage amid historic low unemployment. DON’T MISS Richard Lautens/The Star ontario budget [Here’s what you need to know about the Ontario budget]( Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy’s 2022-23 spending plan recycles policy promises and projections from his April 28 fiscal blueprint. Major takeaways from the budget tabled at Queen’s Park Tuesday include plans for record spending at $198.6 billion, a five per cent increase in Ontario Disability Support Program payments and the expansion of the tax credit for low-income individuals and families, raising the threshold from $38,500 to $50,000. [Here’s more on anticipated tax credits, plans for the deficit and a new provincial park](. - More: With no additional cash announced for health care, the Ford government says there are “no easy solutions” to the challenges the province is facing. [Here’s how it says it will confront the crisis and inflation](. - Martin Regg Cohn’s take: Ford’s second term in power has barely begun, but his honeymoon is fading fast. [This is the tale of the Tories’ changing fortunes](. Toronto Star home care [They’re watching their dying little girl go without the specialized home care she needs]( It was hard enough before the pandemic for Nicole Payette-Kyryluk to ensure her daughter had round-the-clock nursing care at home — the 10-year-old has a rare neurodegenerative condition and needs palliative care. Now, she’s facing a crisis worsening in tandem with the decline of the province’s health-care system.  Getting enough specialized nurses with the skills needed to keep Alexa alive has become a near daily struggle. [These are the personal struggles that have left the family convinced Ontario’s system is “beyond broken.”]( - By the numbers: During the pandemic, the acceptance rate for new home-care clients dropped from 95 per cent to just 55 per cent. - The aftermath: Leaders and advocates say ignoring the needs of home care will only intensify pressures on hospitals. - More: Nurses are leaving for higher-paying jobs as people in health care are “scrambling for the same staff resources” and a home-care CEO says the sector “has been decimated by COVID.” Toronto Star employment [More people are working than before the pandemic — but there’s still a labour shortage]( With changing demographics and an aging population, more workers are at retirement age right now than ever before. That means that, despite more Canadians between 15 and 64 working today compared to 2019, there are more than one million job vacancies across the country — that figure outnumbers unemployed workers for the first time since tracking began in 2015, according to a new BMO report. [Here’s what a labour shortage could mean for workers and employers for decades to come](. - By the numbers: The national unemployment rate is 4.9 per cent, the lowest since 1970. - Context: “We have the smallest working-age cohort since the 1960s,” explained Armine Yalnizyan, an economist and Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers. - More: One expert says there needs to be more investment in the skilled trades and more support for immigrants to use their qualifications, while Yalnizyan says the future of work needs to be reimagined to give more opportunities to marginalized people. WHAT ELSE [The Ford government is doubling down on its low-wage strategy for women health care workers](. There’s an epidural shortage in Toronto-area hospitals. [Here’s what it could mean for your hospital visit](. Safe for swimming? [Here’s why advocates say Toronto’s new tool for measuring water quality at its beaches is misleading](. Amid the Hockey Canada scandal, a Toronto family [speaks out about the sexual assault they say their 12-year-old boy endured](. Cut-off residents. Dwindling supplies. [Creeping wildfires have Newfoundland on edge](. The province is [investigating deaths of construction workers after the Ajax trench collapse](. Peel police are looking for this motorcyclist [wanted in string of GTA armed robberies](. John Derringer and Q107 are [parting ways amid these verbal abuse allegations](. Alberta’s minister for women apologized for awarding a prize to an [essay arguing that women are “not exactly equal to men” and raised concerns about “foreigners.”]( Whether you’re looking for romance, friendship or business — [these are the best spots in Toronto to find it, according to Bumble and Open Table](. A U.S. congressman says the FBI seized his cellphone — [here’s what we know about his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection](. It’s time to prune your garden’s bushes and trees. [Here’s how to do it](. POV Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images [The world saw an FBI raid. Here’s why Donald Trump saw the beginning of his return to the White House.]( CLOSE-UP Daniel Cole/AP Photo FRANCE: A paddle boarder passes through a drying portion of the Verdon Gorge on Tuesday. France was in the midst of its fourth heat wave of the year Monday. [This has been the impact of what the government says is the country’s worst drought on record](. Thank you for reading. You can reach me and the First Up team at [firstup@thestar.ca](mailto:firstup@thestar.ca?source=newsletter&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=emailutm_email=6C53B63A8E3FAD70AD4EF13004527437&utm_campaign=frst_138880). I’ll see you back here tomorrow. [The Star]( If you're not enjoying these emails, please tell us how we can make them better by emailing newsletterfeedback@thestar.ca. Or, if you'd prefer, you can unsubscribe from this newsletter by clicking the first link below. [Unsubscribe From This Newsletter]( [Sign Up for More Newsletters and Email Alerts]( [Become a Star Subscriber]( [View in Browser]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON M5E 1E6. 416-367-2000 [PRIVACY POLICY](