Tying minimum wage to inflation "arbitrary", Thornhill Tory provincial byelection candidate says

Thornhill Liberal
February 7, 2014
By Tim Kelly

The stakes were high Thursday night, just one week away from the provincial by-election in Thornhill, as candidates from Ontario's four main parties made their case before voters at a debate organized by the Canadian Automobile Association South Central Ontario branch.

Moderator Alan Carter, Global TV's Queen's Park bureau chief and host of Focus Ontario, pushed the candidates for specific answers on such topics as how they would fund transit improvements, whether or not they support right-to-work legislation, and if a boost in the minimum wage to $14 per hour is something they support.

On the minimum wage question, Conservative candidate Gila Martow said she felt the real issue was the need to create a business-friendly climate in Ontario, rather than the exodus of young people heading to Western Canada for jobs, which, she believes, is happening now.

"There's no point talking about measures that are going to hurt our economic growth," Ms Martow said.

Pressed to answer specifically on the merits of increasing the minimum wage in Ontario to $14 an hour, tied to the rate of inflation, she said: "I think it (the hourly wage tied to inflation) is an arbitrary number. I think what we want to do is have job creation in this province. We don't want to lose jobs.

"Instead of asking the workers … well, what worker isn't going to say why not make it $20 an hour, why not make it $30 an hour?"

Mr. Carter asked what Ms Martow would support as a method to determine the minimum wage rate.

"I would support whatever the business climate can handle. What I am saying is we sit down with business leaders," she said, before being interrupted by a heckler who said that "business would want a zero" increase in the cost of labour.

Meanwhile, Liberal candidate Sandra Yeung Racco took the opportunity to go on the attack against Ms Martow on the minimum wage issue and accused her opponent of being "really out of touch".

"If she (Ms Martow) thinks that people in Thornhill do not need minimum wages, there's a big problem. According to the Blue Door Shelter, there's 18,562 people that live in poverty in Thornhill. That's 14 per cent of the people. I think the premier took the right approach."

On the issue of how to fund better transit in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Ms Martow and NDP candidate Cindy Hackelberg attacked headline-grabbing Liberal scandals and wasteful spending as well as potential new taxes as the wrong approach.

Ms Martow wasted no time taking on the Liberal record, saying it was one of failure.

"McGuinty gave us a gas tax that was supposed to be dedicated for transit. It went into general coffers and that's how they got the money for cancelling the gas plants, eHealth and Ornge," she said. "And we're paying the debt and the interest on the debt for all of this waste of money. I would say Thornhillers are tired of missing the last GO Train home at night and want more GO Train service. Thornhillers are tired of paying another fare just to cross over Steeles Avenue. Thornhillers are tired of hearing this."

Ms Yeung Racco defended the Liberals' record, saying the government has delivered the soon-to-be-completed Yonge-Spadina subway extension to Vaughan.

The debate also included driving-related questions that all four candidates agreed on, including enacting tougher distracted driving legislation.

Before the debate began, however, perennial fringe candidate and People's Political Party of Ontario leader Kevin Clarke overtook the podium to deliver a long-winded, rambling diatribe that amazed, amused and perplexed.

Gently ushered away by a security guard about 10 minutes before the debate was set to begin, Mr. Clarke eventually left the ballroom, but not the building before he was arrested on unspecified charges for refusing to depart when repeatedly asked.

Earlier this week, debate organizers had banned Mr. Clarke, as well as Libertarian Party candidate Glen Balfour, Erin Goodwin of the Freedom Party and John Turmel of the Paupers Party, from official participation but, along with Mr. Clarke, Mr. Balfour and Ms Goodwin showed up to hand out campaign literature and mingle in the pre-debate crowd.