Editor, the Times:

On July 1 people across the country celebrated Canada Day. Other things happened on July 1. British Columbians began paying HST. On the other side of the country, in Newfoundland, minimum wage workers got a raise to $10 an hour.

Here in B.C. nothing changed with our minimum wage, the same way nothing has happened to it in the last nine years, frozen at $8 an hour.

We called and found that McDonald's restaurants in St. Johns are starting workers at $10.25 an hour. Here in B.C. many McDonalds restaurants start their workers at $6.75 an hour. That is $3.50 an hour less. By the way, a Big Mac in Newfoundland costs $4.19 and, despite the lowest starting wages in Canada, British Columbians also pay $4.19 for the same burger.

That is pure profit for McDonalds, hour after hour, burger after burger, shift after shift. Of course other minimum wage employers are raking it in too.

Raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour is the right thing to do and the vast majority of British Columbians believe it is long overdue.

On raising the minimum wage, the question was: If not now, when? After nine years, the question should be: if not now, ever?

So the next time you complain about paying HST on a burger, and you have many reasons to be outraged at the HST, remember the person serving you. They are paying HST too, and they haven't had a raise since 2001.

Jim Sinclair,

President of the BC Federation of Labour