Del Duca defends province’s labour law changes at chamber breakfast

— Ontario’s chambers of commerce are not fans of recent labour law changes including a higher minimum wage.

The provincial body, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, said drastic cost increases for small business would lead to significant job losses and hefty inflation hikes.

“The implementation was too much, too fast,” the organization said in a recent statement.

Locally, Cambridge Chamber of Commerce officials have called the move “irresponsible” and “unreasonable, unmanageable and unfair.”

So it didn’t take long for the issue to come up Thursday as newly minted Economic Development and Growth Minister Steven Del Duca addressed a chamber breakfast at the Galt Country Club.

Looking around the room, Del Duca acknowledged that raising the minimum wage to $14 an hour from $11.60 on Jan. 1 was “not a universally popular decision.”

But he said it’s not something his government took lightly. “At the end of the day, I think we can all agree that it matters that people are paid a decent wage,” he said.

The government has introduced measures intended to relieve some of the strain, including reducing the small business tax rate and cutting unnecessary red tape.

“As a government, we are fundamentally on the side of both employees and employers,” he said. Calling the reforms courageous, Del Duca said “doing the right thing is not always the politically safe thing.”

During a question-and-answer session, North Dumfries Mayor Sue Foxton urged Del Duca and his government to provide additional support to the business community.

Foxton said the increased minimum wage may not be as much of an issue for many businesses as some of the dozens of other changes. Some of the other reforms include enhanced vacation and personal leave entitlements, and changes to how shifts can be scheduled or cancelled.

“People are already losing their jobs,” Foxton said. “They are afraid, they are concerned for their livelihoods.”

Del Duca said that visits such as the one to the Cambridge chamber allow him to hear some of the concerns firsthand. “We’re going to continue to have a broader conversation,” he said. “The point that you’re raising is not lost on me.”

Del Duca also told the audience the provincial government has been vocal in its advocacy for the North American Free Trade

Agreement, as negotiations on its future continue.

“This is an auto town,” he said. “There are concerns about the Trump administration and their America First approach.”

On a similar front, he said they’re continuing to analyze the revised TransPacific Partnership and what Canada’s participation could mean to Ontario’s auto and steel industries.

As technology transforms the global economy, Ontario can capitalize by being first to innovate, first to produce and first to successfully get to market, Del Duca said.

“Ontario is in a very strong position to compete and to compete successfully in the new economy,” he said.