BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is from a laid-off Orillia man in response to the recent hike in minimum wage and how it has affected people.
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The main point seems to be 'this is a horrible time.' My response is: if not now, when?
There is a single room for rent in Barrie — that is a bedroom with all other amenities shared — posted on the Barrie Buy and Sell (site) for $1,000/month. So how many hours does one have to work to pay that rent? The price of food is going up, something that was mentioned in the article.
Minimum-wage workers literally picked this country up and put it on their back, throughout the pandemic, putting their lives at risk, and when things improved slightly everyone forgot that.
Minimum-wage workers have, for the longest time, been considered disposable. You decry a wage increase, but what is usually forgotten is that minimum-wage workers spend their money. Almost 100 per cent in the local economy.
Most minimum-wage workers create jobs in the local economy. Without them, most small- and medium-sized businesses would not exist. Everyone thinks that the economy is supported by the middle class.
I hate to inform you but the rich are destroying the middle class, not the poor. In Ontario, family incomes have shrunken while other provinces have shown two to three per cent increases.
Further, the disparity between rich and poor has grown substantially in the last 16 years, as well as tax distribution remaining fairly consistent, meaning that while most Ontarians are taking less home, and the rich taking much more, the tax rates have not changed to reflect the redistribution of wealth to the rich. Working people are actually subsidizing the rich through their taxes.
It has come time that some serious reflection needs to be made as to who the real villains are. It's not your neighbour that was driven into bankruptcy by the cost of everything. It's not your neighbour that is worried that the next rent increase will mean that he has to choose between hydro and cable. The real villains are the people that lie to you and tell you that they 'are on your side.'
A buck a beer is not going to cut it. There need to be strident changes in both Ottawa and Queen's Park, if we are to have any sort of economic prosperity.
From the federal government a fair and balanced UBI strategy, and there needs to be a more fair distribution of taxes. From the provincial side of things, powerful and meaningful rent controls are needed as is a strategy for geared to income utilities, including internet.
So, while you are bemoaning the paltry attempts by the Ford government to buy votes with an almost meaningless minimum-wage increase, remember the Golden Rule. He who has the gold makes the rules.
Brad Johnston
Orillia
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