{"id":19729,"date":"2018-02-01T12:59:12","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T17:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19729"},"modified":"2018-02-01T12:59:12","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T17:59:12","slug":"government-to-perhaps-address-concerns-over-minimum-wage-mpp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/government-to-perhaps-address-concerns-over-minimum-wage-mpp\/","title":{"rendered":"Government to \u201cperhaps\u201d address concerns over minimum wage: MPP"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n

Challenges being faced by local businesses big and small following the Ontario Government\u2019s raising of the minimum wage are \u201cunderstood\u201d by the Province but Newmarket-Aurora MPP Chris Ballard is mum on any measures that might be taken to help blunt its impact.
\nSpeaking to The Auroran in a wide-ranging, two-part start-of-the-year interview ahead of this spring\u2019s Provincial election, Newmarket-Aurora MPP Chris Ballard, who also serves as Ontario\u2019s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change says concerns have been heard.
\n\u201cWhat I have said to companies who have been in to talk to me is I continue to take their issues, their concerns forward to my Cabinet colleagues, to the Premier, so that the issues we face, especially [the issues] small businesses face here in Newmarket-Aurora are understood by governments and, as they move ahead, they make decisions [and] that we can perhaps address some of them,\u201d says Mr. Ballard.
\nMr. Ballard, a first term MPP who was elected to his position while still serving as a member of Aurora Council, says during his time at the municipal level of government he heard residents speaking of the need for a \u201cfair wage, a living wage\u201d and the status quo wasn\u2019t meeting the cut, with some Aurorans working two to three jobs at a time just to get by.
\n\u201cIt just wasn\u2019t enough for them to make ends meet and many of them are single parents, many of them single mums looking after kids and really, really struggling to get by,\u201d says Mr. Ballard. \u201cI recall about three years ago, I had the Fair Wage organization come to me [and] they were telling me the living wage in York Region \u2013 and there have been significant increases in rental costs \u2013 was something like $17.45 an hour.
\n\u201cI know for a number of small businesses, and I have talked to a number of small businesses, from large businesses in my riding, and I understand while it presents some real, real challenges for them, I think it is very important that we try to help those folks who are struggling to get by in our community with some help to make ends meet.\u201d
\nIn the end, Mr. Ballard days it is \u201cvery important in our society\u201d to have a society that is, in itself, \u201cvery fair.\u201d Recent changes to rules governing Ontario businesses are, he says, a step in the right direction.
\nThe Province\u2019s economy is \u201cbooming,\u201d he contends, with very low unemployment, and a business climate which has fostered the creation of over 800,000 jobs since 2009.
\nWhile he says Statistics Canada has the numbers to back up the argument of increased prosperity here in Ontario, not everyone has seen the benefits in their day-to-day lives.
\n\u201cI have met people who are doing really well and they are really excited about [about the economy], but I have also talked to people who aren\u2019t doing well and they wonder about their future, they wonder about the future of their children,\u201d says Mr. Ballard. \u201cChanges we brought with the bill are a very strong step in the right direction helping these families, but I understand for some small businesses, especially the ones run by a mum and dad , can be struggling. Taking their issues forward, talking about those at Queen\u2019s Park, representing them, we need to build a fair and prosperous Ontario, an Ontario that everyone shares in and that is what we need to do in our riding.\u201d
\nAlthough Mr. Ballard says he can\u2019t talk about some of the measures the Government might be considering to mitigate some of the challenges being experienced by business, he says Steven Del Duca, the Minister of Economic Development is working with the Premier and other ministries, including finance, to do just that.
\n\u201cWhen you look at the United States, for example, going right back to the introduction of minimum wage, their own Department of Labor has determined minimum wage increases benefit all local businesses,\u201d he says. \u201cThey increase the buying power of those folks who are benefits of the increase and I think when the dust settles we will be further ahead in our riding.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Challenges being faced by local businesses big and small following the Ontario Government\u2019s raising of the minimum wage are \u201cunderstood\u201d by the Province but Newmarket-Aurora MPP Chris Ballard is mum on any measures that might be taken to help blunt its impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-58d","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 19:27:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}