Yesterday Acorn, all wearing matching red t-shirts, with full support of Alex Cullen (affectionately known as the Banner) took time out of their community organizing to persuade the City of Ottawa Community and Protective Services Committee to recommend a full council debate on an increase in the minimum wage from $9.50 to $13.25 for all city employees and it's contractors.
Who might Acorn be you ask? My American friends know exactly who and what that little group is and if you have never heard of them I want to know where you been hiding. Acorn is that charming group of folks who's co-founder Wade Rathke has stolen just a tidge under a Million dollars of taxpayer dollars.
If you want to find out how to defraud the IRS by setting up a front for your prostitution ring and get cheap housing to boot, these are your guys.
If you want advice on the best boarder entry place to bring in those underage girls you are going to pimp? These are the guys for you.
You want to just talk to an ex-madame about your underage prostitution fifedom and smuggling of underage girls, these are the guys for you. Hey they might even no somebody...
Just a few charges, just a few indictments. No biggie... This is one sweet group of folks that do Not condone this sort of behaviour but by golly they do attract some winners don't they. But enough of them and their red shirt sea of reps at the Committee. Lets get to the meat of the proposal shall we?
The claim is that currently the City of Ottawa has roughly 400 employees that make less then 13.25/hour. So that would only cost the city some 1.4 million per year to full fill their responsibility to be a Leader in the field of the "Living Wage".
What a load of horse pucks.
These 400 jobs are jobs that are mostly seasonal, those sorts of jobs that students take in the summer to make money for weed, booze, school, experience to put on the resume, to get an "in" at the city for cushy union jobs on the taxpayers teat, to get the parental units off their collective asses, easy jobs to pass the summer like counting cars at intersections, tours at the nature centres that dot that city like acne, like sitting by wading pools making sure the Mammas and the teenage babysitters don't let their charges drown. These are not rocket scientist type jobs here.
But this is NOT the real end game, not even close. Getting the City to FORCE all contractors to also pay 13.25 as a minimum wage? WThoodles? How many jobs will that kill? How many private companies will no longer be able to provide services? How many more public service jobs will that make I wonder.
One does not even have to think long or hard to know why Alex Cullen and his Union buddies just love this idea. Have you figured it out yet? The city actually has Union workers that make *Gasp* $13.25 or less as an entry pay scale. Wonder how long that will last? Wonder how many contracts have an automatic upping based on the lowest pay rate? (It happens all the time that contracts are signed with a covenant that the scale will change based on what other workers get) And up the line that will go. Those taxpayers are looking at a whole lot more them mere 1.4 million. More likely they are looking at 17 thousand employees who potentially could get similar increases. Worst case? Over 127 Million in increased salary, 17 thousand x 36 hours x 52 weeks x 4 dollars an hour. Ouch! Add on that the employer portion of increased CPP, Unemployment Insurance, increased expenses for those over the top dollar for dollar pension packages, increased Workers compensation costs, increased levels of Life insurance cost, increased levels of Long term Disability, man the dominoes just keep falling all over them selves now don't they. $1.4 million as an estimate by the city workers is a joke and they have to be laughing up their sleeve presenting that to the committee.
This is not about a living wage in any way shape or form, this is about contriving an excuse to enforce a pay increase for those parasites that work for the City already. The Grey Lady happens to have a Grey haired Mamma that lives in that City and my Mamma is just hanging on to her house as it is. Her Property Taxes have gone up almost double in the last 10 years, but her income has NOT. She is not the only one, there are many of the older folks that are being taxed out of their homes in that "great" city, there are a lot of real working poor or lower middle class that are being taxed out of that "great" city too. Add this with the new smart meters and attached punitive charges for those that live at home during the day time, the introduction of the 8% HST this summer? WOW. Do they even have a chance? Freeze? Stop eating maybe?
So Alex and Acorn can pretend that they are doing a really great thing by enforcing a living wage for mostly high school and Uni students but some of the sheep can see thru the con.
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