David Fairey, Co-Chair of the BC Employment Standards Coalition, was quoted in an article in the Georgia Straight on BC’s proposed minimum wage increase. Jobs Minister Shirley Bond is expected to announce this month that in September, the province will raise the minimum wage to $10.65/hour. Fairey has argued that the increase is inadequate, and would still leave the baseline for future Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustments too low.

The province’s imminent minimum wage announcement comes on the heels of a Freedom of Information Request by the Georgia Straight revealing that the BC government had been aware of faulty information guiding its increase in minimum wage in September, 2015. The province had initially intended to move BC to the middle of minimum wages relative to other provinces last year, but ended up leaving it close to the bottom of the barrel. However, once the government became aware of its error, documents show that it failed to correct or reveal this mistake to the public.