Trudeau not ruling out idea of four-day work week to boost economy post-coronavirus

OTTAWA (NEWS 1130) – The prime minister isn’t ruling out the idea of a four-day work week in Canada as a way to boost the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic.

When asked about it on Wednesday, Justin Trudeau said there are a lot of creative ideas around what a post-COVID-19 world could look like.

In response to my question kindly relayed by @cmaconthehill about if Canada will consider a 4 day work week post Covid, Trudeau says “I think there’s a lot of people thinking creatively about what the post Covid world could look like.“ But says he won’t speculate at this point.

— Richard Southern (@RichardCityNews) May 27, 2020

However, while he looks forward to hearing more of them, he said there are more pressing matters to attend to.

“Right now we’re very much focused on getting through this particular crisis, and we’ll have plenty of time to talk about particularly creative ideas on moving forward, but I’m not going to speculate on what any of them might be,” he said at his daily briefing.

New Zealand was one of the first countries to flirt with the idea. In a recent Facebook live video, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she’s been thinking of ways to help the country’s tourism sector bounce back, and added if people had more time off, they’d travel more.

https://www.facebook.com/jacindaardern/videos/236345824321997/?v=236345824321997

“I hear lots of people suggesting we should have a four-day week. Ultimately that really sits between employers and employees, but as I’ve said, there’s lots of things we’ve learned about COVID and just that flexibility of people working from home, the productivity that can be driven out of it,” Ardern said.

“Really encourage people to think about, if they’re an employer and in a position to do so, to think about whether or not that is something that would work for their workplace because it certainly would help tourism all around the country.”