HALIFAX — Nova Scotia now has the lowest minimum wage in Canada, a distinction protestors called “shame” on during a rally pushing for a $15 hourly wage.

More than 50 people waving signs and carrying a large ‘Fight for $15 & Fairness’ banner rallied on Dalhousie University campus before marching down the streets of Halifax to gather outside the office of Labour and Advanced Education Minister Labi Kousoulis.

“Nova Scotia is in a horrible situation. It’s not pretty, it really isn’t, and if we don’t continue to keep on the backs of our elected officials, and say ‘we’re not putting up with this,’ then they’re going to continue to roll back benefits,” activist Lynn Jones said to the crowd.

Nova Scotia has a minimum wage of $11 an hour, or $10.50 for “inexperienced” workers, while this week Saskatchewan moved up 10 cents to $11.06 making N.S. the lowest in the country.

“We’re not keeping up with the cost of living … we can’t put food on our tables,” Jones said, adding that Nova Scotians should be saying “shame, shame” on the provincial government.

Provinces like Alberta and Ontario have committed to the $15 wage, with Alberta moving up to $15 this week and Ontario’s former Liberal government setting the province at $14 an hour in 2018, with $15 planned for 2019.

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However, Premier Doug Ford has previously said he will freeze the minimum wage at $14 an hour and Labour Minister Laurie Scott also said her government would stick to that promise, since the 20 per cent increase would be “crassly political” and “the highest and fastest in our history.”

Jones pointed to Ontario as an example of what can happen “if we don’t keep fighting” and join forces with other advocates across the country.

Nova Scotia has one of the highest unemployment rates in Canada (sitting in fourth at 7.4 per cent as of March 2018) with as many as 130,000 Nova Scotians working for wages below $15 per hour according to the provincial NDP.

Parts of Nova Scotia have some of the highest rates of child poverty in the country (according to a report from Campaign 2000), while N.S. universities and colleges are charging some of the highest tuition fees in Canada for the 2018-19 academic year.

Jones pointed out that even these statistics don’t paint a full picture, since poverty rates are often “double” in the Black community and unemployment is so bad many people who used to go out for work “aren’t even in the statistics anymore” because they’ve given up after years of discouragement.

“And then, even when they’re looking for that work, they can’t feed their families — so they end up back in … the social services system and the guess what our government does when they go on that social services system? They complain that people don’t want to work,” Jones said.

Jones said she’s often been called an activist while advocating for trade union rights and other social justice causes, but said her response is “you call it activism — I call it survival.”

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The wage increases in Ontario and Alberta have shown that the road to $15 is not filled with doom and gloom, but rather are helping contribute to a stronger economy so “there’s really no excuse not to,” said Fight for $15 & Fairness Halifax organizer Sakura Saunders.

Saunders said their group believes trickle-down economics does not work, and the best way to build an economy is from the “bottom up.” She said it’s been shown in Alberta and Ontario that the move helps lower unemployment, “and if you give people at the bottom more money they’re going to spend it and it’s going to help everybody.”

Although N.S. has recently hit its highest population yet (now almost 959,942 people) a rapidly aging demographic and issues retaining young people mean that by 2030 more than one in four Nova Scotians will be aged 65 and over (according to Shift: Nova Scotia’s Action Plan for an Aging Population).

Since many people are forced to leave N.S. in search of high-paying work, Saunders said raising the minimum wage would be another way to keep workers and their families in the province

“We have fallen so far behind that just four and a half years ago we had the fourth-highest minimum wage and now of course we have the lowest,” Saunders said.

“The amount that the government has been raising the minimum wage in this province has not even kept up with inflation … we think that Nova Scotia needs to catch up.”

According to the Nova Scotia director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, today the minimum wage is worth less than it was 40 years ago; its peak value was in 1977 ($11.14 after adjusting for inflation).

The NDP in N.S. has introduced legislation that would increase the minimum wage to $13 on August 1, 2019 and $15 by April 2020. It would also eliminate the ‘training wage’ for inexperienced employees.

An emailed statement from a spokesperson on behalf of Minister Kousoulis said Tuesday that it's important to balance the needs of minimum wage earners with the concerns of the business community.

The province wants to ensure they have the best approach that works for N.S, which includes looking at options for “harmonization in Atlantic Canada,” the statement said.

They also pointed to the Nova Scotia Minimum Wage Review Committee (consisting of two employee representatives and two employer representatives), which is currently reviewing the minimum wage as well as how it’s adjusted on an annual basis.

“We look forward to reviewing the Committee’s recommendations and the rationale, data and evidence which has informed their recommendations,” the statement said.

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