Ford’s Conservatives Deny Ontario Workers Better Pay

Doug Ford’s Conservatives vote down NDP bid for buck-a-year raise in minimum wage, Ontario Liberals also refuse to vote in support NDP bid

“It’s not enough to call the people who clean our hospitals heroes, or to say thank you to the workers who stock our grocery shelves. We need to show them respect by paying them a wage that pays the bills.”          – Andrea Horwath, Ontario NDP Leader

News from the Office of Ontaro NDP Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath

Posted December 3^rd, 2021 on Niagara At Large

Ontario NDP Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath

QUEEN’S PARK — On Friday (this December 3^rd), Doug Ford’s Conservatives denied workers better pay by voting down an NDP amendment that would have put Ontarians on the path to a $20 minimum wage.

Andrea Horwath and Ontario’s New Democrats have committed to a schedule of stable, predictable $1-an-hour increases to the minimum wage over each of the next five years.

Ford’s Conservatives rejected that schedule, defeating an amendment to replace the low-wage policy set out in the Fall Economic Statement, while the lone Liberal in attendance, MPP Amanda Simard (Glengarry—Prescott—Russell) refused to take a position, abstaining from the vote. That means the minimum wage will stagnate at $15 an hour as the cost of everything goes up.

“Does Doug Ford not understand that minimum wage earners often have to cobble together two or three jobs to make ends meet, and make sacrifices just to give their children the basics?” said Horwath. “It’s not enough to call the people who clean our hospitals heroes, or to say thank you to the workers who stock our grocery shelves. We need to show them respect by paying them a wage that pays the bills.

“Mr. Ford is again showing he’s not here for workers by choosing to stick with his low-wage policies. If I were premier, I’d be putting Ontario workers on the path to a $20 minimum wage with stable, steady annual increases.”

The Ford Conservatives cancelled the minimum wage increase and froze wages for three years — putting the change to $15 years behind schedule. They cut and denied workers paid sick days. And they are capping wages of frontline heroes like nurses and teachers with a wage cap bill that pins their paycheques behind inflation. The Liberals could have raised the wage to $15 in hour when they had the chance, but they chose to delay it until after Ford’s election.

Horwath has pledged to develop a fund to help legitimately struggling small and medium-sized local businesses transition to the higher wages mapped out in the NDP’s plan:

* $16 Oct. 1, 2022

* $17 May 1, 2023

* $18 May 1, 2024

* $19 May 1, 2025

* $20 May 1, 2026

To read a recent story posted on Niagara At Large on the Ford government’s plan to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour in the New Year, click on – https://niagaraatlarge.com/2021/11/02/ontario-government-to-raise-minimum-wage-to-15-an-hour/

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