Robust protections for vulnerable workers are critical to modernizing Ontario’s economy, advocates told government Friday at a packed committee hearing on its sweeping proposals for labour reform.

If passed, the legislation introduced in May will be the most far reaching set of updates to existing laws in two decades — boosting the minimum wage from $11.40 to $15 an hour by 2019, and prohibiting pay discrimination against part-time and temporary employees doing the same work as their full time counterparts.

But at the last in a set of province-wide public deputations, economists, labour activists and business leaders clashed over Bill 148’s implications.

“(This reform) has the potential to bring labour legislation into the 21st century, and to improve the lives of millions of Ontarians,” said Sheila Block, an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

“The weight of economic evidence is behind the drafters and the supporters of this legislation.”

Conversely, Ontario Chamber of Commerce policy director Ashley Challinor called discussions on the rise of precarious work “overstated” and warned the proposed reforms would be burdensome for businesses who create jobs and stimulate growth.

“The pending legislation will create winners and losers; job loss, increased costs of consumer goods, and economic hardship. This does not demonstrate fairness,” she said.

In addition to wage hikes, the new laws would introduce two paid emergency days for all workers in Ontario, penalties for employers who change workers’ schedules at the last minute, and increase holiday entitlement from two weeks to three.

Chris Buckley, the president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, lauded those moves but said government needed to go further — including measures to make it easier for all workers to unionize and to increase the number of paid emergency days to seven.

“This is a chance to get it right and improve conditions for workers across Ontario whether they are unionized workers or not,” he said.

As previously highlighted by the Star, workers’ rights advocates have expressed concern that the bill does not go far enough to regulate temporary help agencies, which statistics show have increased by 20 per cent across the province over the past decade.

Buckley said the proposed bill should also include just cause protection for non-unionized workers, and extend full coverage to so-called dependent contractors: self-employed people who are economically reliant on one company for work. Critics say that measure is crucial to protecting the growing number of people working in the gig economy.

“There is a real concern with the ongoing bifurcation of good jobs and not-so-good jobs,” said Pedro Barata of United Way Toronto.

“This is an issue that really impacts all of us and does not belong to one community alone.”

The bill is expected to go to second reading in September. Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Premier Kathleen Wynne said the committee hearings would help fine-tune the legislation so it’s better for employees and employers.

“We’ll be looking to those delegations and the information that was gathered to find good ideas to support small businesses. I am committed to helping business and I am committed to making sure that people are treated fairly,” the premier said.

“Those things should not be in conflict with one another. In a country and a province as rich as we are we should be able to make sure that people can live, they can feed their families, they can look after themselves, and that they can find a decent job,” said Wynne.

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“We have said quite clearly that we are going to work with businesses — particularly small businesses — to make sure that we do everything we can to help with the phase-in. Exactly what those mechanisms will be, I can’t tell you at this point,” she added.

Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers vice-president Gary Sands said small business already struggled to compete with corporate giants who, by virtue of their size and power, are able to cut costs by extracting concessions from suppliers.

“Small- and medium-sized businesses do not have the clout of a Walmart,” he said.

Research from the CCPA shows the overwhelming majority of minimum wage employers are larger businesses. According to a study by the United Way, around half of all jobs in the GTA are now precarious in some way.

That, according to two medical professionals who testified at the hearings, is causing a distinct strain on the health care system.

“Lower income is associated with a significant higher burden of disease and higher mortality,” said Hasan Sheikh, an emergency room doctor at University Health Network in Toronto.

Psychiatrist Michaela Beder called the legislation a “bold move to improve the health of Ontarians.”

“What’s critical in terms of our research is that precarious employment is increasingly about all of us,” Barata said.

“Increasingly we’re seeing that the face of precarious employment is the face of Ontario.”

Correction – July 24, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Hasan Sheikh is an emergency room physician at St. Michael’s hospital.

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