United Conservative Party leadership candidate Doug Schweitzer is calling for a major cut to Alberta’s minimum wage in 2019 if the UCP wins the next provincial election, but at least one of his rivals calls the idea a “non-starter.”
The NDP government is on course to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2018 to keep an election promise, with the last increase in October, 2016 putting the current wage at $12.20.
In a news release Thursday, Schweitzer said that if he leads the UCP to victory in the 2019 provincial election the new government would roll back the minimum wage from $15 to $12.20.
“We need to make Alberta the most competitive business environment in Canada and repeal the NDP’s $15/hour minimum wage — it is out of touch and just isn’t going to work for Alberta,” said Schweitzer, a Calgary lawyer.
Schweitzer is one of four declared candidates for the UCP leadership, along with former Progressive Conservative leader Jason Kenney, former Wildrose leader Brian Jean and former Wildrose president Jeff Callaway.
He is running as a social moderate but an arch fiscal conservative, having previously proposed massive cuts to Alberta’s corporate and personal income tax rates and the elimination of the carbon levy, as well as a plan to slash the salaries of public sector workers across the board.
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On Twitter, Kenney said he opposed the minimum wage increases brought in by the NDP “but rolling it back is a complete non-starter.”