Ontario Liberals embed 2019 minimum wage hike in new law
A Progressive Conservative government would be forced to change labour laws in order to derail the $15-an-hour minimum wage increase that takes effect six months after the June 2018 election.
Thestar.com
June 22, 2017
By Robert Benzie
A Progressive Conservative government would be forced to change labour laws in order to derail the $15-an-hour minimum wage increase that takes effect six months after the June 2018 election.
In an unusual move, the Liberals have embedded the increase in the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act being studied this summer by an all-party committee.
Under the legislation expected to pass this fall, the minimum wage, now $11.40 an hour, will jump to $14 on Jan. 1.
It will then increase to $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2019, well after the June 7, 2018 election, before being linked to the inflation rate that October.
“Ontario’s economy is leading growth. A $15-minimum wage will help ensure families experience this growth in their own lives,” Premier Kathleen Wynne tweeted Thursday.
But Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown, who leads Wynne in most public-opinion polls, has warned the increases are too much too soon for employers to bear.
“Do I think we should have a 32-per-cent increase immediately without a cost-benefit analysis? No,” Brown said three weeks ago.
“The way that the premier has announced it is too fast, too quick. It’s not giving proper notice to our job creators ... so, yes, I have significant concerns,” the Tory leader said.
“I’m sure, right now, Kathleen Wynne is looking for distractions for the next election,” he said May 31, the day before the legislation was tabled.
“I get that Ontario right now is unaffordable. I get that it is difficult for people to live in Ontario right now - and frankly that’s Kathleen Wynne’s mess from the last 14 years - but do you need to do this 32-per-cent hike immediately? Or can you pace it out?”
In an interview with the Star last week, Wynne acknowledged the Liberals would campaign on the minimum wage increases as well as the new OHIP+ pharmacare plan that provides prescription coverage of 4,400 medications for everyone under 25, which launches Jan. 1.
That appears to be one reason that a timeline for the wage hikes is specified in the legislation.
“(Determination of minimum wage) is amended to increase the minimum wage on January 1, 2018. The minimum wage increases again on January 1, 2019 and is subject to an annual inflation adjustment on October 1 of every year starting in 2019,” the bill reads.
The premier said her party would remind voters that higher wages and better drug coverage could be lost if Brown’s Conservatives are victorious next June.
“That will be part of the subscript, obviously, because we’re different. We are different parties. We’re different people. We have different sensibilities and different values, as far as I can tell,” said Wynne.
“So, that’s obviously going to have to be part of the discussion.”
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, whose party is pitching a universal pharmacare plan for all ages, though it only covers the 125 most commonly prescribed medications, has long favoured a $15-an-hour minimum wage.
