Farmers fearful Ontario minimum wage hike would sink profits

Ottawa-area farmers who are just starting to dry out from a rainy first few months of the growing season say next year's minimum wage hike is already a concern.

Rainfall amounts in Ottawa have neared or set records in April, May, June and July, which has swamped farmers who either couldn't get out into their fields to plant seeds or, once planted, saw those seeds get drowned.

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At this past weekend'sLansdowne Park farmers'market, vendors said they had finally started to get some much-neededhot, dry weather in the last two to three weeks, helping them fill the gaps in their growing plans that had been washed out earlier this spring and summer.

But some brought up another issue that's looming in the political rather than meteorological forecast.

"The big issue is going to be minimum wage going up next year," said Jonathan Rochon of Rochon Gardens in rural southeast Ottawa.

"That's what's scaring everybody, especiallyfarmers."

The majority Liberal provincial government is proposing a number of changes to Ontario's labour system.

If passed by the Legislature,Ontario's minimum wage would increase from its current $11.40 an hourto $14 at hour on Jan. 1, 2018, then up to $15 to start 2019.

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"The increase of 30 per cent [by 2019]is going to kill us," Rochon said.

"We hire about a dozen temporary foreign workers [a year], we hire 20 Canadians, everyone falls in the [minimum wage] area where we'll have to raise salaries across the board it wipes out all our profits."

Mark Just from Just Farms in Alexandria, east of Ottawa,said he didn't raise retail prices for his produce during last year's drought or this year's heavy rains, but isn't ruling out having to do so nextyear with higher wages biting into already thin and unpredictable profit margins.

"That one we'll probably have to pass onto the consumer.Ithink you're going to see that throughout the retail business, whether it's at farmers' markets, Loblaws, Super C, wherever," he said.

The Liberals have answered such criticism by saying their goal is to get people out of poverty without making it too costly to run a business.

"We are going to work with businesses, particularly small businesses, to make sure that we do everything we can to help with the phase-in. Exactly what those mechanisms will be, I can't tell you at this point," Premier Kathleen Wynnesaid in Ottawa late last month when asked aboutrelief for businesses affected by the labour changes.

"I'm committed to helping business and I'm committed to making sure that people are treated fairly. Those things should not be in conflict with one another."