British Columbia should be proud of itself; it now has the lowest minimum wage in all of Canada. Yes, you just read that sentence correctly; every other province and territory in Canada has passed us on the minimum wage. Over here in British Columbia we have a minimum wage of $8 per hour, and if you have less than 500 hours of experience, you will receive $6 an hour. Currently, Nunavut has the highest minimum wage at $10 an hour, most likely because only 30,000 people live in the territory, but they will soon be passed by Ontario on March 31st of next year at $10.25 an hour. I am so jealous of my fellow Canadians back east.
Eleven of the thirteen provinces and territories have all increased the minimum wage in their jurisdiction at least once in the past year or two. There are two exceptions; can you guess what they are? The Northwest Territories haven’t raised their minimum wage since 2003, and in BC, we last saw an increase in 2001. Yes, eight years ago. Most provinces are planning to raise their wages to $10 an hour by next year, and the Yukon increases their minimum wage every year on April 1st. But there must be a consequence of raising the minimum wage, and that’s why BC has done it again since 2001, right?
Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals maintain that if the minimum wage were to be raised to $10 an hour, which is proposed by the BC NDP, and the British Columbia Federation of Labour, that our province would lose small businesses, and we would suffer as a result, not benefit. Are you ready for the rant? You know you are. If you ask me, an increase to the minimum wage makes perfect sense at this very moment. If we removed the $6 an hour training wage, and increased the general wage to $10 an hour, some homeless people might be able to rent an apartment, and those currently with a home, could stimulate the economy, thus benefiting the province, not hurting it. In regards to small businesses, if a company is making so little money it cannot survive in the unstable capitalist market that is our economy, and if they shed tears because they lost little amounts of money, they most likely wouldn’t have lasted much longer anyways. Besides, most weak small businesses would unfortunately have failed by now due to the economic hurricane that is ripping through the Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s of our southern neighbours.
Now is the time to increase the minimum wage, it would help take some people off the streets, it would cause the economy to pick up steam in our province, and might even increase the BC Liberals support for a split second. 80% of British Columbians support increasing the minimum wage to $10 an hour today. My question is for the Government of British Columbia; why not?
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