Speaker, yesterday marked the start of Living Wage Week, an important reminder to all of us to recognize the need for a livable wage in Ontario.

The Ontario Living Wage Network released their yearly living wage rates for the province for 2022. The stark reality is that there isn’t a single one of the 51 communities analyzed where the livable wage has been identified under $18 an hour, far above the current minimum wage.

Many people in Ontario are finding themselves fully employed yet unable to afford the cost of living as inflation rates continue to soar. The cost of groceries, housing, utility bills and transportation have all increased, while wages have remained stagnant. We know that those making the lowest wages in this province are the most impacted when the cost of living increases.

In my community of Windsor, a livable wage has been identified as $18.15. That’s the lowest hourly wage someone needs to make to be able to put a roof over their head and food on the table. The minimum wage is currently set at $15.50—a $2.65-an-hour difference, equalling $5,500 per year that people are coming up short, yet the Conservatives were just bragging about their minimum wage. That doesn’t account for the employees who are forced into precarious part-time positions where hours are not guaranteed.

Many Ontarians are working two or three jobs just to make ends meet. Ontarians deserve to be able to afford the basic costs of living.

It’s time for big corporations, which made record profits this year, to step up and pay a fair wage.

We must support Ontarians and raise the minimum wage.

The Conservative government’s empty slogan, “Working for workers,” doesn’t cut it. If they genuinely supported workers, they’d ensure they get paid a living wage. Poverty is this government’s policy choice.