Several BC Liberal leadership candidates are promising to raise the long-frozen minimum wage if they take the party’s helm.
Echoing the leadership campaign promises are calls from provincial business and labour leaders.
“We need the provincial government to take a look at the cost of living in B.C., [but] we’ve not looked at a specific amount,” said Anita Huberman, CEO of the Surrey Board of Trade.
Joked Evan Stewart, the BC Federation of Labour’s communications director, “They’re going to need lots and lots of consultation. They didn’t need it for the HST, though.”
Moira Stilwell, the former minister of advanced education and labour market development, is calling for $0.50 increases in the minimum wage every six months until it reaches $10 an hour.
“Everyone I’ve spoken to has said that it’s the right time to increase it,” said Stilwell, who announced her Liberal leadership candidacy on November 22. “I can see that it is an immediate and direct way of helping families at the poverty line.”
She acknowledged that raising the minimum wage may involve a “series of trade-offs” and that some business sectors – particularly the restaurant industry – potentially have concerns that would need to be addressed. “In that case, I’m happy to meet with employees and employers.”
Stilwell added that her proposal of $10 is based on a consensus of views among people and groups that she has spoken to.
“Businesses … want predictability and the opportunity to plan – that it’s not so much small incremental increases over time as it’s a policy of predictability.”
Former education minister George Abbott, who announced his candidacy on November 25, supports a review of the minimum wage.
“I fully expect that the result of the review will be an increase in the minimum wage, and I’d like to see an increase.”
Kevin Falcon, leadership candidate and former health minister, has also told media that he supports raising the minimum wage, but only in predictable increments so the increases won’t hurt small business.
Echoing Falcon is former attorney general Mike de Jong, who declared his support for a minimum wage hike while announcing his Liberal leadership candidacy.
But de Jong declined to say what the minimum wage should be raised to.
Prior to announcing her decision to step down as NDP leader, Carole James said a minimum wage hike is long overdue given B.C.’s rising cost of living and the province’s status of having the country’s lowest minimum wage.
The Liberals increased the province’s minimum hourly wage to the current $8 from $7.60 when the party swept to power in the 2001 provincial election. It also established a $6 “training wage,” which applies to new workers who have worked less than 500 hours.