Statement by MFL President Kevin Rebeck on the Government of Manitoba’s poverty reduction strategy:

The poverty reduction strategy released today contains some important commitments such as supporting early childhood education, providing transitional support for youth exiting the child welfare system and providing safe housing and financial security for seniors.

However, there is a glaring hole in the poverty reduction plan: no commitment to making Manitoba’s minimum wage high enough for workers who earn it to live on and afford essentials, like rent and groceries.

No one should work full-time and still live in poverty, but that is the harsh reality for many minimum wage earners in Manitoba. And the rising costs for rent and groceries are hitting the lowest-wage workers the hardest.

In polling conducted for MFL by Probe Research last year, 72 per cent of Manitobans said that our minimum wage of $16/hr is not enough for most workers to get by on.

The Manitoba government needs to repeal Brian Pallister’s restrictive minimum wage law that keeps minimum wage earners trapped below the poverty line, even with full-time hours. We would have liked to see a commitment to do that in this poverty reduction strategy.