Québec solidaire gave the Quebec government a warning shot on Sunday morning by calling on it to increase the minimum wage to $20 an hour.
Posted at 12:46 p.m.
The party’s new co-spokesperson, Ruba Ghazal, and solidarity deputy Alexandre Leduc highlight in a press release published in the morning that such an increase is justified by the growing use of food banks.
The 2024 Hunger Report, published at the end of October, indicates that the total number of requests for food aid per month in Quebec amounts to 2.9 million. This is 55% more compared to 2021. And the share of households whose main income comes from a job represents 19.6% of the beneficiaries of their services this year. A figure increasing compared to previous years.
Mme Ghazal exclaims in the press release that it is “scandalous that in 2024, people who work full time cannot feed themselves properly and must go to food banks. This is proof that the social contract is broken. »
For his part, Mr. Leduc argues that the increase in food is greater than the increase in the minimum wage and therefore prevents “one from eating properly”.
The party had already mentioned this idea during its annual convention last November and it was rather poorly received by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), which argued that, according to its calculations, such an increase would involve additional direct costs of 1.09 billion for Quebec employers and would put strong pressure on the increase in consumer prices.
The CFIB instead advocated the adoption of tax measures to directly support workers. The federation cited in particular an increase in the basic personal amount, work bonuses and even targeted tax credits.
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