Thornhill Tory candidate Martow blasts Liberals' minimum wage plan as feel-good message
'We need to be equitable, fair' says Racco

Thornhill Liberal
January 28, 2014
By Tim Kelly

Thornhill provincial Progressive Conservative byelection candidate Gila Martow called the move to raise the minimum wage this week “a vote-buying, feel-good kind of message,” in an interview.

“If you think about it, what does it mean? I don’t think that, especially in the Thornhill riding, there’s too many families... that are working ­— the parents ­— at real minimum-wage jobs,” said Ms Martow Monday, before Premier Kathleen Wynne is predicted tomorrow to raise the $10.25 per hour wage by the rate of inflation, retroactive to 2010.

It may jump to $10.94 per hour, with sources indicating in published reports the government will round the wage off to $11 per hour.

Ms Martow suggested most minimum-wage earners are “kids... and what we’re hearing is it’s going to be hard for high school students to get jobs if the minimum wage is too high and those kids are living at home and not paying mortgages, otherwise when you raise the minimum wage, there’s no guarantee that everybody else’s salary goes up by the same amount.

“That’s the perception by the public and that’s what this Liberal government is counting on is that the public is going to be fooled into thinking that everybody’s job is going to be tied into the rate of inflation increase. I would like you to show me a few families living in Thornhill that are paying their mortgage and both parents are working real minimum-wage jobs, not a penny more than minimum wage.

“The best way to get salaries to go up is to have lower unemployment so that the businesses are competing for skilled people. They don’t work for minimum wage. Why? Because you can’t get anybody,” she said.

When PC leader Tim Hudak was in the riding last week and was asked about raising the minimum wage, he said, “If you want to talk about that policy path, talk to the other two leaders. They can focus on minimum wage jobs. I want to focus on good, well-paying middle-class jobs, the kind of job you can depend upon. Right now, the odds are you’re stuck in a minimum-wage job, I want jobs of much higher quality than that.”

He added: “We’ve got enough minimum-wage jobs, I want to create high-quality jobs so young people won’t have to go out to Alberta or B.C., they can stay here in Thornhill, close to family and buy their own home — that’s what I’m all about.”

In an interview with York Region Media Group, Ontario Federation of Labour Leader Sid Ryan called the move to tie the minimum wage to the rate of inflation, “revolutionary” and applauded the Liberals for doing so.

He said Monday’s recommendation of an advisory panel struck by the government last September that looked at the minimum wage and recommended it be tied to the inflation rate, “brought labour, business and government together”.

The combined inflation rate from 2010 to 2014 is 6.7 per cent, resulting in the 75 cents per hour hike, still to be officially applied.

Ms Wynne, who toured the Thornhill riding with local Liberal candidate Sandra Yeung Racco last week in advance of the Thornhill provincial byelection, slated for Feb. 13, said calls to raise the minimum wage to $14 per hour would “be a real shock to small businesses, particularly.” She did promise a decision well in advance of the budget delivery, expected in late March.

Ms Racco said Monday that, “minimum wage is something of a concern, I think it’s a concern for everyone. It’s a concern that we have people that are working at minimum wage right now and living in Thornhill. I think what the premier is doing is a good direction ... we need to have some sort of system in place and we need to do it in an equitable way and a fair way.”