EDMONTON—Some local shops are backpedalling after supporting a Restaurants Canada campaign that advocates for a minimum wage freeze and lower wages for young workers.

Teresa Spinelli, president of Edmonton’s Italian Centre Shops, appeared in a campaign video for the industry lobby group last Tuesday that features Alberta restaurant owners talking about their financial struggles. In it, she says rising costs have made it harder to hire people with disabilities, and suggests she might open her next store in another province because there is “no incentive” to open one in Alberta.

“We’re looking at Saskatchewan, because the minimum wage in Saskatchewan now is $10.36. I think they’re more open to bringing people in and helping entrepreneurs open business there,” she said.

Spinelli’s comments drew a backlash online, and the next day she posted on Twitter that she believes in equal pay for equal work for everyone and does not advocate a rollback in the minimum hourly wage or an ability-based wage grid.

When reached over the phone Tuesday, Spinelli said it is “tough to live on $15 an hour,” but that she has not decided whether she agrees with a wage freeze.

“We’ve always paid above minimum wage at our stores,” Spinelli said.

Read more: Jason Kenney floats idea of lower minimum wages for young workers and alcohol servers

“My issue is that it was minimum wage, carbon tax — I’m not against the carbon tax either, by the way — federal tax laws, provincial policies, all at the same time. And that’s a little bit much for a business to control. So it’s been a big, big effect on our business.”

Minimum wage increased to $15 in Alberta last October.

Duchess Bake Shop posted a statement to Facebook over the weekend in support of the $15 minimum wage after its co-owner Garner Beggs — who also co-owns Café Linnea — was quoted by CBC last week supporting reduced pay for young workers.

In its statement, Duchess said Beggs was only expressing his personal opinions and they are not representative of the other owners’ views.

“We have always stood for inclusivity and supporting our community, and believe in equal work for equal pay. We compensate our staff fairly, and have always been in favour of higher wages,” the statement reads. “We do not support recent calls for rolling back minimum wage, or an age-based wage grid.”

A Duchess representative declined to comment further when reached by Star Edmonton.

Spinelli maintained there is no incentive for her to open another store in Alberta in the current economic climate, and said she is weighing the pros and cons of expanding into Calgary or Sherwood Park versus Saskatchewan.

She said she was not aware of all of Restaurants Canada’s policy recommendations before she agreed to take part in the video, but she said she still supports the group.

“They’re just stating the facts of their members, that they’re having a really tough time doing business in Alberta. And I hear them and I want to support them,” Spinelli said.

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Advocacy group Progress Alberta published a list on Facebook on Tuesday of restaurants that have publicly come out in support of, and in opposition to, the $15 minimum wage.

The group’s executive director Duncan Kinney said a two-tiered minimum wage system is a “trash policy” that needs to be called out.

“I think it’s pretty clear that this policy idea has gone over like a lead balloon, and that the idea that we should be rolling back wages for special groups of people who we think are deserving of less money is just awful policy,” Kinney said.

But Mark von Schellwitz, vice-president for Western Canada with Restaurants Canada, maintains the Alberta government needs to make policy changes to help restaurants survive.

Restaurants Canada has a list of 16 recommendations on its Restaurant Realities campaign website, including freezing minimum wage and rolling back wages for youth and liquor servers.

“Restaurant Realities is a non-partisan campaign nurturing constructive engagement around the perfect storm of the operational challenges that we’ve had in this poor economic climate, with a bunch of government policies adding on,” von Schellwitz said.

The group cites Statistics Canada data showing the number of workers employed in food service and accommodation went from 159,600 in February 2015 to 149,400 in December 2018, and the average sales per unit has dropped from $917,800 in 2015 to $834,160 in 2018.

A May 2018 ATB Financial report, however, states that Albertans are still the second-highest spenders at restaurants and bars per capita, only trailing behind British Columbia.

United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney told an audience at Restaurant Canada’s press event last week that separate minimum wages make sense, though neither Kenney nor Restaurants Canada would give specifics on what exactly the separate wage rates would look like.

Other provinces — such as Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and British Columbia — have differing minimum wage rates. In Ontario, workers under the age of 18 can be paid a minimum wage that is 85 cents less than for an adult, while alcohol servers can make $1.80 less.

Alberta Labour Minister Christina Gray pulled out of the Restaurants Canada event after learning the lobby group was launching what she considered “a rollback of workers’ rights and an anti-worker campaign.”

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