Re: Alex Sangha’s letter to the editor in The Leader, Feb 26 (“B.C needs a guaranteed basic income”).
The whole country, not just B.C., needs to have a serious look at its labour laws and the minimum wage issues that are preventing our working blue collars to climb out of what has become modern-age slavery.
Cost of food, ICBC, medicine, clothes, transit, you name it is forever escalating. Who can afford to buy groceries today, let alone pay the rent and send their kids to school?
The minimum wage should be increased to $15 an hour or more. Businesses will just adapt and adjust to the new realities of life.
The wage increase is feasible, when you consider countries like Australia, where the minimum wage is $17.49 an hour, and the Scandinavians, where minimum wages and social structures are designed so no worker falls into modern-age slavery and families not only survive, but thrive and grow.
It’s about time politicians in Ottawa stopped indulging in selfies and provincial leaders stopped riding in private planes.
Canadian workers need help and they need help now keeping their families afloat.
Bob Baro
Surrey