Ontario is raising its minimum wage. Will Manitoba follow suit?

WINNIPEG -

The Ontario government announced on Monday it is going to increase the provincial minimum wage to $15 an hour. Now, the question remains, will Manitoba follow suit?

Currently, Ontario’s minimum wage is $14.35 per hour, with the 65-cent increase set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2022.

In Manitoba, the minimum wage is $11.95.

Loren Remillard, president and CEO of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said Ontario’s announcement will put some pressure on the Manitoba government to look at its own minimum wage.

However, he said there’s not a lot of interprovincial competition for workers in the sectors that pay at the minimum wage level.

“By and large, when it comes to minimum wage sectors, the competition is internal to Manitoba,” Remillard said.

He noted certain industries that employ minimum wage workers, such as hospitality and restaurants, are facing hardships when it comes to finding people to work at their businesses, even though many already paying well above minimum wage.

“That is effectively what we’ve always said about minimum wage is it sets the floor, but it doesn’t set the ceiling,” Remillard said.

He added that some companies need to pay at the minimum wage level, because they’d otherwise have to close down.

“For some companies it’s the difference between keeping their doors open and not, especially because of COVID,” he said.

“At the end of the day, understand there’s going to be a lot of conversation in the wake of Ontario’s announcement, but we always need to make sure we’re taking a look at Manitoba, our circumstances, the ability of our companies to be able to operate and move forward.”

Remillard said he knows that raising the minimum wage to $15 is seen as an anti-poverty measure, but thinks there needs to be a strategy that recognizes that many minimum wage workers are youth who live with their parents.

He said he thinks the better approach would be a strategy specifically geared towards certain situations where people are facing poverty.

“How do we get that person out of a minimum wage position and into higher-paying careers?” Remillard said.

“That needs to be our strategy for that particular segment of the minimum wage earner.”

Remillard said if the minimum wage were to be raised, businesses would try not to pass those costs onto consumers, but it may be inevitable for some once they’ve exhausted all other options.

“We’re seeing that in the conversations about inflation, hyper-inflation. The supply-chain challenges are really driving costs up for so many businesses,” he said.

A number of other provinces and territories have already set their minimum wage to $15 or more, including Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

- With files from CTV’s Jon Hendricks.