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That's at minimum
Re Ontario's Minimum-Wage Hike Could Cost More Than 50,000 Jobs, Watchdog Warns (Sept. 13): A $15-per-hour, 40-hour work week equates to a $31,200 salary. The employer will have to pay another $5,000-plus on the employee's behalf for CPP, EI, Workers' Comp etc., bringing the total to more than $36,000. That's minimum. Most are paid more than minimum now, so their wages have to go up in lockstep. Price increases will follow.
Economists and the business community are clear that this will hurt the very people the increase is (purportedly) trying to help, as employers make the cuts necessary to stay afloat. But that doesn't get votes. And that's what Ontario's Flynn-Wynne team is looking for.
Beware the consequences.
Jay Gould, president, South St. Burger
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The Financial Accountability Office issued a temperate, balanced report that clearly showed, on balance, a positive outcome from Ontario's minimum-wage hike.
Some job growth will be delayed or curtailed (hence the 50,000 number), but there will be no massive layoffs of the sort that one could infer from your corporate-anguish headline.
Of course, the positive impact to paycheques for poor people and the economy from the additional spending that will occur is not a corporate headline grabber.
Bruce Van Dieten, Toronto
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Providers of home care for seniors only sell labour. Accordingly, 100 per cent of any increase in the cost of labour must be passed on to the end user. The minimum wage bill schedules wages to go up approximately 23 per cent in January and another 7 per cent a year later. My average client spends about $45,000 per year for private, in-home care. I pay more than minimum wage already, but because of the size and speed of this increase – when the minimum wage increases, our wages must increase to stay competitive – my average client will see a cost increase of $5,000 in 2018 and another $2,000 in 2019.
The government is very clear that they want people to age at home. How is it possible then that they are both reducing the amount of government-provided home care (reducing Community Care Access Centre resources) and at the same time forcing a huge increase in the cost of private care?
In order to age at home, you better be rich or have children you can live with.
David Bernstein, president, Caregivers Services Ltd.
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X. Rated
I enjoyed your Apple iPhone editorial, The 10th Anniversary Of The Future (Sept. 13), but I wonder why you neglected to mention the $1,300 iPhone X's auto-withdrawal feature: It empties your bank account, just like that.
Sent from George Roberts's iPhone, Calgary
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Stand up, Canada
Re Rohingya Tales Of Terror Emerge From Bangladeshi Hospital Wards (Sept. 13): Justin Trudeau's brand and MO is that he is the prime minister of a country that promotes multiculturalism and tolerance.
This brand is being tarnished by the de facto leader of Myanmar and honorary Canadian citizen, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is tacitly endorsing ethnic cleansing.
If the Trudeau government wants to maintain its credibility when it comes to human rights and promoting multiculturalism, it should strip Ms. Suu Kyi of her honorary Canadian citizenship. That would also send a signal to the rest of the world that ethnic cleansing can never be tolerated.
Andrew van Velzen, Toronto
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Aung San Suu Kyi has not acted against the military's brutal repression of the Rohingya since becoming leader of the opposition in 2012, or since she became national leader.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should get some guts, immediately rescind her honorary Canadian citizenship and call for UN sanctions against Myanmar.
Like Rwanda before it, this tragedy is unfolding in front of us and few countries are calling for action. Canada must stand up and lead the call to help the Rohingya.
David Platt, Toronto
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In a leader's mind
Re When Dinosaurs Ruled The World Stage (Sept. 9): Tina Brown uses a term that has become feminist dogma, telling us men's actions are controlled by "toxic testosterone." Having noted how awful some men are as leaders, which is beyond debate, she does not mention Myanmar's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the genocide against the Rohingya. Applying the same "logic," we would assume Ms. Suu Kyi is being controlled by toxic estrogen.
Perhaps it makes better sense to stick with facts. Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin et al, as well as Ms. Suu Kyi, are doing what they're doing, not because of any poison flowing through their veins, but because they've chosen to do so.
Our justice system refers to this as mens rea, or the guilty mind. The rest of us, women and men, need to take appropriate action against bad leadership with that fact clearly in mind.
Steve Soloman, Toronto
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Heads of countries inevitably face complex, controversial, and sometimes contradictory, moral decisions. Justin Trudeau deals with (and has dealt with) issues that directly challenge his self-avowed feminist ideals.
It's obvious he's a committed advocate for women's rights, not because it garners votes or it's fashionable. For Mr. Trudeau, a progressive, it's because it's 2015 and '16 and '17 and '18 and …
Mel Simoneau, Gatineau, Que.
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Whale worries
Re China Tests Shipping In Northwest Passage (Sept. 11): Worried about ships colliding with endangered North Atlantic right whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence? Just wait. Heavy traffic in the Northwest Passage would inevitably result in collisions with bowhead whales, another slow whale, and also a species at risk.
Jacques Sirois, Victoria
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Nature's politics
Re How Did Mother Nature Get So Political? (Sept. 12): It's not about getting politics out, but about getting the right language in to sidestep partisanship. Our climate crisis is beyond individual solutions, so it's critical all governments have the best climate policies for their jurisdiction.
Let's craft policies that address common goals: clean air, water and soil. We all need a sustainable food supply, so we need farming methods and infrastructure that will withstand the ravages of heat waves and floods. Let's have political language that diminishes the chances of partisan backlash by focusing on everyone's priority: a sustainable, clean and thriving economy in the changed world we are living in now.
Carole Lavallée, Chelmsford, Ont.
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Take politics out of climate change? As ludicrous as taking politics out of op-ed writing.
Linda Nowlan, Vancouver