Sir: My wife and I are pensioners living on a fixed income. Like most other folks, we have to budget wisely. And we manage very well.
In what is obviously a move to win votes in the next election, Premier Kathleen Wynne is now hitting small business owners, although she must know they’re the folk who create most of the jobs in our economy. She must also realize they depend upon the predictability of their marketing costs
How can they handle a massive hike in the minimum wage next year? I know it doesn’t seem so massive to the average employee but on Jan. 1, Ontario’s minimum wage will rise from $11.40 an hour to $14, followed by another $1 hike to $15 on Jan. 1, 2019.
Surely this will put more pressure on already beleaguered small business owners. To solve their problems, many of them will surely have to lay off staff or lock their doors and draw the blinds. And if they do manage to stay in business, our premier will be hiking employer costs by giving workers more mandatory vacation time and two new paid sick days.
This isn’t a case of socialism liberalism or conservatism. It’s just common sense, which isn’t very common anyway. It was Samuel Taylor Coleridge who said, “Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.”
I’m not a political junkie, but I don’t believe Ontario taxpayers can afford Kathleen Wynne’s government!
Stephen Beecroft
Chatham
