Sam Odrowski
The provincial government plans to repeal sections of Bill 148, which includes freezing the minimum wage at $14 an hour until 2020.
The minimum wage was set to increase to $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2019 under the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act (Bill 148) that was passed by the former Liberal government late last year.
But last Tuesday, the province introduced the Making Ontario Open For Business Act (Bill 47).
In addition to freezing the minimum wage for 33 months, other changes include making a doctor’s note a requirement when employees are ill and removing an employee’s ability to refuse requests to work or be on call with less than 96 hours’ notice.
Bill 47, if passed, also will repeal the two paid sick days and eight unpaid days of leave due to illness, injury, or death and replace them with three unpaid sick days, two unpaid bereavement days, and three unpaid days for family responsibilities.
While the Conservative government has defended its legislation, saying it will help to create more jobs and support small business, many of the 1.7 million minimum-wage workers in Ontario are upset they no longer will receive the expected increase.
“The government, in my opinion, has turned their backs on those who make minimum wage here in Ontario,” said Ontario Federation of Labour president Chris Buckley.
“It’s still very hard to live on $14 an hour in the province of Ontario, or $15 an hour, but it was an improvement to help these workers out of poverty so we’re extremely disappointed in today’s government,” he added.
But local MPP Greg Rickford is standing by his government’s decision, noting local businesses already had been struggling to deliver minimum wages of $14 an hour.
“Scrapping Bill 148 opens this province up for business and creates more job opportunities,” he said during a conference call Friday afternoon.
“If you spent any amount of time talking to small employers, medium-size employers in the Kenora-Rainy River [riding] alone, you’d hear loud and clear that Bill 148 was counterproductive to their ability to meet payroll and certainly create new jobs,” he noted.
Rickford also said those who make under $15 an hour won’t be paying tax on their salary, which will help keep more money in their pockets.
“That’s consistent with what our [election] platform was,” he reasoned. “Keeping money in the pockets of the people of Ontario and that very much includes people who create jobs.”
Buckley said creating jobs hasn’t been an issue since the latest minimum wage hike from $11.40 to $14 an hour that went into effect on Jan. 1 of this year.
“It has not been catastrophic, the sky did not fall,” he stressed. “In fact, we just hit an 18-year low unemployment rate here in the province of Ontario.
“Jobs have been created.”
Much of Rickford’s issue with Bill 148 was the roughly 380,000 regulatory requirements in a host of different ministers that was included in it.
“The red tape and regulations baked into that piece of legislation made it very difficult for businesses to survive, let alone thrive,” he argued.
“When it comes to specific details around wages and around days off, some of those designations or allocations will be maintained but very few of them.”
“In short, we’re talking about a couple of days here that small businesses said were problematic for them,” he added.
While Rickford felt the days off were difficult for business, Buckley said limiting the time off and reintroducing doctor’s notes as a requirement will be detrimental for workers as ‘flu season approaches.
“Workers are going to be forced to go to work sick, workers are going to be forced to pay out of pocket for a doctor’s note, and I’m sure there will be a number of employers that will abuse the doctor’s note system because they always did,” Buckley charged.
“It has a huge negative impact on workers’ health and their well-being.
“The government we’re stuck with here in Ontario, in my opinion, has caved to the big business community,” he added.
“What’s troubling is the premier ran on a campaign that he is there for the little guy, [that] he’ll be a premier for the people,” Buckley noted.
“Well, in my opinion, the newly-elected premier of Ontario has turned his back on the little guys of Ontario and turned his back on a majority of the workers here.”
Rickford, meanwhile, said his party’s proposed legislation makes the province a better place to work and ultimately will strengthen the economy.
“We are committed to making Ontario a great place to work and do business, and we are ensuring that our local economies are set up for prosperity and growth,” he said in a press release issued earlier Friday.
“We’re cutting red tape, creating new jobs, and telling the world, loud and clear, that Ontario is open for business,” he noted.
