$15 Min. Wage In Ontario: Job Destruction Is Coming Near You

At a press event held yesterday in Laval to highlight the expansion of its head office and the creation of 200 jobs, Alain Bouchard, Executive Chairman of Alimentation Couche-Tard‘s Board of Directors, said he anticipated convenience store closures in Ontario in the wake of last week’s announcement of a minimum wage increase to $15 in 2019.

“Yes, there will be closures. I can not say how many … There will be the disappearance of several stores in Ontario, “said Alain Bouchard, according to the Journal de Montréal in an article published today.

Mr. Bouchard admitted that Couche-Tard thought he had finished with the downsizing in the neighboring province of Quebec, but that the announcement of the increase in the minimum wage would necessarily provoke others, according to the newspaper.

This is no surprise: to increase by 30% the price of labor in two years, is sheer lunacy.

But what does Premier Kathleen Wynne think when she makes such decisions?

Does she think Ontarians will fare better with fewer jobs and fewer services?

Does she get up in the morning dreaming of closed businesses in cities and along the avenues?

Does she prefer to see young people, newcomers and less experienced workers stay at home doing nothing rather than go to work?

Does she prefer to see her tax revenues melt like snow in the sun to finance education and health?

Now, if a giant like Couche-Tard has to close down stores, what about the legion of its competitors who are more vulnerable and deprived of the immense resources of his company?

It could be devastating… And how will this help the Ontario economy?

Clearly, there is no word to describe the lunacy of such decisions deprived of any common sense.

Poor Ontarians!

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