The McGuinty Budget: Almost Enough To Make John Tory Actually Look Decent…almost!
March 22, 2007 · By Matthew Campbell
Off the heals of Monday’s federal budget and the subsequent rumblings in Quebec on how all three party leaders there would spend their newfound wealth, today we were all treated to the last McGuinty budget of the Ontario Liberals’ first term in power. So, how did it shake up?
Well, frankly, I have to admit as someone who had no intention of boycotting the John Tory “We’re Liberals too!” Progressive “Conservative” Party in protest of its leader’s Torontophilic obsession with appearing as non-conservative as possible, I might just have to vote for the guy anyway to prevent this from actually coming to pass:
The highlight of insanity in the 2007 Ontario budget is a plan by the McGuinty government to raise the province’s minimum wage from the current $8.50 to $10.25 by 2011! To put that figure in perspective, minimum wage in 2003 (the year that McGuinty was elected) was $6.85. That’s a 67% increase planned in just eight years which will mean that prices from everything from a loaf of bread to a cup of Tim Horton’s coffee will be dramatically hiked again and again!
Let me say this though: I don’t blame McGuinty for this. He’s just a Liberal who simply doesn’t know any better when it comes to how the economy works; the only thing he understands is politics! And right now, political trends in Ontario are showing that the biggest threat to McGuinty’s second majority dreams comes from the NDP, which have picked up three seats in by-elections held since 2003, all at the expense of the Liberals. The PCs, on the other hand, have only managed to recapture the three seats that were vacated by their own members (Flaherty, Baird, Jackson). The minimum wage issue has become big among The Left, who seem to figure that minimum wage increases come directly from the company’s limo executive budget, and not, say, the consumer who picks up the difference in higher prices!
So, at the end of the day, I find myself blaming John Tory again for doing a lackluster job since becoming party leader since 2004. Had he at least done what Preston Manning, Mike Harris or Stephen Harper managed in similar positions, McGuinty would now be pandering to The Right in this budget.
Of course, the reason that this is happening in Ontario is the same reason why I’m reserving judgement on whether the PCs will get my vote after all: Tory has a pendant of adopting Liberal policies so as to gushingly label himself “moderate” as soon as the polls suggest that he can get a few downtown Toronto voters out of the move…
Why are wage increases at the low end NOT coming out of the pockets of execs? Maybe they should.
But if costs of buisness goes up, you don’t slash wages of other employees to make up the difference, no buisness would. How would you punish the execs anyway? And do you or I have the moral authority to say that someone’s wage/benefits should go down to compensate for another’s wage increase?
John Tory needs to put a little pizzazz in his ads. They are pathetic.
Have you ever tried to live on $8/hour? It’s simply not possible today, without resorting to food banks and credit cards. I’ve been there. Poverty is horribly stressful.
The wage hike seems all the more excessive because it was stuck at $6.85/hr for over a decade, while inflation ate away at the buying power of a dollar. If a business can only survive buy paying its employees less than a living wage, they deserve to go under. It will be replaced by another business that can.
Wow Abattoir, it’s obvious that you have never been in business. Most companies have very slim margins. Your casual remark that not kicking out $10.00/hr per employee means you deserve to go under is pretty short-sighted. Want to kill small business start-ups? This is a graet beginning.
I’m having trouble tracking down the stat, but from what I remember, there are so few people actually earning minimum wage that this whole argument is moot.
We’re not talking millions of people here, we’re talking thousands, and I’m willing to bet the vast majority are youth.
I’ll keep looking for the actual stat that contains the amount of people in Canada earner minimum wage, if you have it, please post it.
Andrew Coyne mentioned the stat in one of his articles at the beginning of February I think (around the time of the 3 by-elections). I think he said it was around 1% of the population earns that much. Remember too though how many people in that one percent group are just doing that to make some extra cash on the side, like the spouse who has a part time job while his/her wife/husband brings in the extra bucks. Our economy is still adjusting to $8/hr; raise it much higher in yes, either:
a) companies like Tim Horton’s will have to lay off workers, including students who spend their wages on various items that fuel the service sector of our economy or
b)companies that HAVE to keep all the workers will have to hike up prices just to keep in the black. If items go up in price, less people will be able to afford them and hence the economy will suffer.
In that latter case, its clear to see that, by extension, a wage increase really won’t matter for minimum wage earners. They’ll get more physical dollars on their pay cheque, but they’ll also have to pay more for simple things like coffee, food, and even a movie rental; all the places we get those things from typically pay their workers *minimum wage*; there’s also good reason for it too! That’s what passing the savings onto the consumer is all about!
McGuinty is hell-bent on destroying small business for some reason. First, his anti-smoking policies put many small business owners out on the street (then had the audacity to install smoking shelters in his own cash cows: casinos). Now he will bankrupt more hard-working small business owners with his left-wing thuggery through this minimum wage fiasco. As stated above, most minimum wage earners are students, retired people or it is a second income for those with a higher earning spouse.
Oh, but look at all the good Mr. McGuinty has done! We can now take a bottle of wine to a restaurant and ask for a corkage fee. Do you actually know of anyone who does this? Can you believe that this was actually an issue that time, energy and money was spent on to enact this?
[...] or higher Toronto resident with no kids, you are not a happy camper today.* * * *Update: More at the Politic – The McGuinty Budget: Almost enough to make John Tory actually look decent…almost! (Boy, there’s [...]