2010 Life in British Columbia Chapter One · 6.01.10 by colin newell
The Province of New Brunswick today announced a series of increases to their provincial minimum wage that will lead to a 21 percent increase by September of next year.
“In their announcement today, the government of New Brunswick makes a direct connection between combating poverty and increasing the minimum wage,” says Jim Sinclair, President of the B.C. Federation of Labour. “B.C. has the highest rates of poverty in the country, but the Gordon Campbell government ignores the problem and steadfastly refuses to increase the salaries of our lowest-paid workers.”
November 1, 2009, marked eight years since B.C. last increased the statutory minimum wage for workers in the province. Frozen at $8, and slashed by 25 percent to $6 for new workers, BC’s minimum wage has gone from the highest in the country to the lowest during this time. During this period, the cost to taxpayers for Premier Campbell’s own salary and benefits, have more than doubled, increasing 109 percent.
Former car-dealer and now Minister of Labour, Murray Coell, says… “an increase to the minimum wage would result in the loss of 50,000 jobs…”
Which is the same tune business-people in B.C. sang when we eliminated smoking in pubs, restaurants and the work-places: Job loss! Job loss! Job loss!
In 2007 alone, Gordon Campbell voted himself a 54 percent pay raise which took his annual salary to $186,000.
It’s clear. Gordon and his car-dealing ministers with their Olympic sized senses of self-importance have nothing but utter contempt for the average British Columbia resident.
Photo above As the 2010 Olympics approach expect a crack-down on the poor in the Vancouver area – part of the theme of this administration.
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