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Déjà Leonard is a copywriter and freelance journalist based in Calgary.
- Self-employed Canadians make up 10 per cent of the workforce, but are left out of many government-funded programs and policies
- This exclusion of self-employed people, who often come from marginalized groups, perpetuates systemic discrimination
- The government can drive change through universal pharmacare, reformed employment insurance and making policy/program changes with equity in mind
A number of organizations including the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation, the Canadian Freelance Union and YWCA Canada are all coming together to shine a spotlight on those who are self-employed, or as they call them ‘invisible entrepreneurs,’ and how they are neglected by government policies.
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These three organizations, which don’t normally work together, along with nine others, created the Economic Equity Alliance and recently released a report titled Invisible Entrepreneurs: The Impact of Small Business Policy Neglect on Self-Employed Individuals.
“We were able to really show our hypothesis that we knew anecdotally: That this group that is so heterogenous has some really common challenges that need to be addressed,” says Nancy Wilson, chief executive officer of the Canadian Women’s Chamber of Commerce, the nonprofit that initiated the Alliance in January 2023.
Falling through the cracks
Self-employed individuals, as the report states, are those who earn business or professional income (distinct from employment income) and have no employees (paid or unpaid).
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One program that leaves out this segment of workers is the Canada Job Grant. It offers a non-repayable grant for up to $10,000 for job-specific training, but the program isn’t open to self-employed individuals.
Another is the Canada Digital Adoption Plan: a $4-billion program that offers grants and loans to businesses for technology adoption, but is only open to businesses that have at least one employee.
Ms. Wilson says self-employed individuals, who make up 10 per cent of the Canadian labour force, often “fall through the cracks” because there are policies and programs, such as healthcare, for those who are traditionally employed, and other policies and programs, like the grants mentioned above, for business owners who employ other people.
“This is not a new issue, and it’s something that consistently happens,” Ms. Wilson says.
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The makeup of a self-employed Canadian
These invisible entrepreneurs are disproportionately women and racialized workers.
The report shows that 80 per cent of women entrepreneurs are self-employed, while 50 per cent of Black and 68 per cent of Indigenous entrepreneurs are self-employed.
Additionally, 25 per cent of all self-employed individuals are people of colour, and 18 per cent of people living in rural Canada are self-employed.
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Ms. Wilson says these policies that leave behind those who are self-employed perpetuate the systemic exclusion we see in society.
“It’s not a surprise that a group that is excluded or ignored is overly made up of people that are systematically excluded and ignored more generally,” Ms. Wilson says.
She says more accessible policies and programs can help enable an inclusive economic recovery while also supporting the business owners of tomorrow.
Supporting invisible entrepreneurs
The report lists three main recommendations to create equitable opportunity for all entrepreneurs.
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The first is to provide social policy and support via expanded universal pharmacare, expanded dental care and reforming employment insurance for self-employed individuals.
“Our social safety net in terms of income support, and some of the additional healthcare benefits that we may be able to get as individuals, are tied to [traditional] employment in this country,” Ms. Wilson says.
The next recommendation is for the government to fund a national summit on self-employment. This would ensure that diverse organizations and people continue to come together to discuss the key issues this group is facing, while also raising awareness so people are ready to participate in programs and policies when they change.
Last, The Alliance wants to see that the improvements that are made are done so through a lens of equity, considering factors like gender, race and geographical location.
Ms. Wilson says that while government policy is important, the challenge is expansive.
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“There are systemic components that are much larger than any of us can deal with at this moment,” she says. “We all need to do our part to move the needle, culturally, so we are at least moving toward a world where there’s less bias.”
What I’m reading around the web
- Typically, digital tools are introduced at work to increase efficiency and make things easier. New data shows that 90 per cent of Canadians say they experience conflict because of digital tools, and 61 per cent say the conflicts negatively affect productivity and collaboration.
- Three Canadian banks, Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, and Bank of Montreal, ranked in the top 10 globally for artificial-intelligence research, as per AI benchmarking platform Evident Insights. According to the rankings, they are excelling particularly in AI-related patents that contributed to banking tool development.
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