Hiring freeze doesn’t help the people

Re Plan to boost workplace inspections stalled, June 29 Doug Ford’s attack on the average working person has already begun.

Ford’s hiring freeze, affecting the Ministry of Labour, means hundreds, if not thousands, of employees will continue to have their hardearned wages stolen. Rich corporations will get richer and unethical bosses will benefit by pocketing their employees’ money.

My husband is a construction worker who was the victim of wage theft years ago.

Without adequate staffing for enforcement, labour laws are meaningles, and workers will continue to be victimized.

I expect poor and middle-class Conservative voters will find they voted against their own best interests, once Ford has implemented his plans to increase income inequality.

Sadly, they are not the only ones paying for their poor decision-making skills. Every Ontario resident who is not rich will suffer under our new premier’s cuts to our social safety net.

Expect environmental and water safety law enforcement to be axed next, followed by cuts to health care and education.

We’re in for four long years of suffering at the hands of a premier who has no plan except making his rich corporate buddies richer. Deborah Bernat, St. Catharines Doug Ford’s “government for the people” will not hire the 75 officers scheduled to enforce workplace standards. I guess “the people” Ford’s Conservative government is “for” will not include workers who need minimum standards for safety, working conditions and wages. Danny Heap, Toronto These officers were to be hired to pursue employers who are committing acts of wage theft and to assist workers to recover an estimated $28 million owed them by their employers.

The premier seems willing to abandon these workers’ claims in not following through with the hiring.

One has to wonder if the premier’s promise to help all the people excludes those at the bottom of the income scale in favour of those unscrupulous employers who steal from their workers. Did his promise include just those people he favours? Gordon Wilson, Port Rowan, Ont.