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Home of Liberal MPP father-in-law of Valerie Jarrett’s daughter:

Province of Ontario announces minimum wage hike same time as Obama



One day before President Barack Obama announced he was boosting the minimum wage from $7.25-an-hour to $10.10 an hour, at Tuesday’s State of the Union address, the Liberal Ontario Government announced a coming increase to Ontario’s minimum wage.
Talk about global government by coordination! Ontario may be a long way from Washington, D.C., but the ties that bind between here and DC are family tight. Ontario Liberal MPP and Deputy Speaker Bas Balkissoon--who posted the coming Ontario Minimum Wage boost on his personal website--is the father-in-law of Valerie Jarrett’s daughter, Laura who is married to Balkissoon’s son, Tony, both lawyers having met at Harvard Law School. “The Ontario government has released a report produced by the Minimum Wage Advisory Panel reviewing the government's current approach on setting the minimum wage and providing advice on how the province should determine changes to the minimum wage in the future,” Balkissoon posted to his website.

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“The panel was comprised of a diverse group of representatives from the business, worker, labour and youth sectors and have made the following key recommendations:
  • Minimum wages should be raised according to the percentage changes in the Ontario Consumer Price Index.
  • Minimum wages should be revised annually, with a minimum of four months' notice for any revisions.
  • The government should undertake a review of the minimum wage rate and revision process every five years.
  • The Ontario government should establish an ongoing research program to gather data and analyze relevant policy issues regarding minimum wages.
The report is available at ontario.ca/labour as well as ontario.ca/minimumwagereview.”
Today the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) will be available to comment on “the Ontario Government’s expected announcement of an increase to the minimum wage”. “The expected increase to $11 per hour would once again make Ontario’s minimum wage the highest in the country, following a near 50% increase since 2003. “The province’s small and medium-sized businesses employ over half of the working population, create the bulk of new jobs and account for about half of Ontario’s GDP. Any change to the minimum wage will affect their ability to grow and create jobs,” The CFIB state in a media release. CFIB is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 109,000 members across every sector and region. Even though Valerie Jarrett used every diplomatic privilege to keep her daughter’s wedding private and even though Liberal Bas Balkissoon kept a low profile, reporters spotted the upwardly mobile MPP in deep conversation with Obama. “The ties between the Ontario legislature and the White House just got stronger. (Canadian Press, June 20, 2012). “An Ontario member of parliament watched his son marry into the inner circle of U.S. President Barack Obama in a private ceremony in Chicago last weekend.
“Toronto Liberal Bas Balkissoon and the president were both on hand when Tony Balkissoon tied the knot with Laura Jarrett, daughter of Obama’s friend and longtime advisor Valerie Jarrett.” “Bas Balkissoon was seen in deep conversation with Barack Obama and Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder.” (Toronto Star).
Bas Balkissoon, on the Canada Free Press Mailing list ever since the days he was a Toronto councillor, cancelled his CFP subscription two months and two days after his son’s marriage to Jarrett’s daughter. Just like the same-time American/Ontario minimum wage boost, It’s all a coincidence, of course.


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Judi McLeod -- Bio and Archives -- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

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