Businesses will suffer when wages go up

Thank you for your thoughtful editorial on the proposed minimum wage hike (Will a minimum wage hike put Peterborough jobs at risk? Aug. 17).

When the government first proposed a $15 minimum wage, along with a number of other significant changes to Ontario’s labour laws, we (along with the Kawartha Chamber of Commerce) went straight to our members, 93 per cent of whom are considered small business, asking them what impact the changes would have on their businesses.

We invited our local MPP Jeff Leal, the Minister of Agriculture and Food and the Minister responsible for Small Business, to a round table discussion.

Twenty Four local business owners and managers came to the meeting representing manufacturing, retail, restaurants, not-forprofits, agriculture, and industry associations.

Every single person in the room said that the proposed timeline for implementation was simply too much, too fast and thus their ability to respond would be compromised, and would involve a combination of fewer hours, fewer jobs and increased prices. Your editorial correctly points out that minimum wage increases in the past have not had significant impacts, however those increases were nowhere near the 32 per cent proposed! Furthermore, the other jurisdictions experimenting with a $15 minimum wage have all had five-year implementations plans, not 18 months.

I wish everyone could have been in that room with those small business owners. The emotion, the drama, the fear gave me a new appreciation for what the typical small business is facing. I believe Jeff Leal learned some things that day too. One retail/restaurant business, employing over 35 people, is facing increased expenses of over $90,000 per year, just to get to $14. Thus they will try to do more with less – fewer hours, fewer jobs and increased prices. We have asked the government for a number of changes to Bill 148. Instead of putting the onus entirely on small business, why not consider income and payroll tax changes for low income earners or a Basic Income Guarantee (currently being studied in three Ontario communities including the City of Kawartha Lakes)?

My reason for writing this letter is largely to ask the reader to resist demonizing business in this situation. The chamber network is not fear mongering. We are representing our members, who are indeed afraid.

Note, One minor correction to your editorial - You suggest that tying an annual minimum wage increase to inflation would be implemented after 2019. The Chamber Network lobbied the government to tie Minimum Wage increases to the Consumer Price Index, which they agreed to and implemented in 2014. Indeed, this will continue after 2019. Stuart Harrison President and CEO Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce