NDP leadership candidate will push for $15 minimum wage
OTTAWA— NDP leadership contender Jagmeet Singh will unveil a host of measures to tackle job insecurity on Sunday, making him the latest candidate to hammer out new policy proposals ahead of the debate in Sudbury.
The Star has learned that Singh will push for a $15 per hour minimum wage for workers under federal jurisdiction. He also wants to ban unpaid internships, including when they’re part of academic programs, and force companies to hire temporary employees after they’ve worked for six months. The MPP from Brampton was, until recently, the deputy leader of the Ontario NDP, and appears to be leaning on his experience at Queen’s Park in the early days of his federal leadership campaign. For instance, Singh has been a vocal proponent of the provincial NDP’s push to help people who work through temporary job agencies.
The jobs plan, outlined in a twopage document obtained by the Star, marks Singh’s first policy platform of the leadership campaign.
It says that a Singh government would reinstate a federal law to ensure companies receiving publicly funded contracts pay fair wages and have non-discriminatory hiring practices.
He would also review Canada’s labour laws to address “contract and temp agency work, pay and benefit inequity, and barriers to forming a union,” and include “community benefit agreements” in federal work contracts to enshrine conditions in the interest of workers and the public, the document says. Quebec MP Guy Caron also put out details this week on how he would reform the tax system if elected prime minister. Caron’s plan includes a tax hike on the profits of financial institutions and the elimination of subsidies to the oil and gas industry.
He would close the so-called “stock-option loophole” that’s used by some wealthy corporate execu- tives to avoid income tax on portions of their salary, and create a tax crimes division in the federal justice department to chase white collar crime.
Candidate Niki Ashton, meanwhile, was in Windsor on Friday to highlight her push to combat inequality in Canada. The Manitoba MP wants to raise taxes on corporations and to eliminate tuition for post-secondary education — as does fellow MP and leadership candidate Peter Julian.
Sunday’s debate will be the first to feature Singh, who entered the campaign after months of speculation earlier in May.
Former veterans’ ombudsman Pat Stogran will also be there, squeaking into qualification after he managed to raise the $30,000 entry fee this week.
Northern Ontario MP Charlie An- gus is also vying for the party leadership, and has been touring the country to meet with party members. His campaign has identified the environment, the economy and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples as key priorities.
Sunday’s debate in Sudbury is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m.
The NDP membership will choose their new leader in a ranked-ballot vote this fall.