Jim Stanford, economist and director of the Centre for Future Work, talks to Adrian Cheung about the big picture of Canada’s economy, why re-opening too quickly could lead to further disaster and ideas on how we can begin recovering financially from this mess. Canada’s economic numbers are staggering, for all the wrong reasons. In the span of two months, more than three million Canadians have lost their jobs and another 2.5 million have had their work hours reduced. Unemployment has soared to 13 per cent as businesses and corporations have taken on mass layoffs. A record number of Canadians are turning to government aid to keep their families and businesses afloat. Meanwhile, the GDP is shrinking at a record rate, at levels unseen in more than a decade. Many economists say a plunge of this severity is comparable to the Great Depression of the 1930s. In short: Canada, along with many parts of the world, have seen its economies devastated during the pandemic. But where is the bottom? Have we seen the worst of it or is there more bad news to come?