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Alberta’s labour minister admits she needs to do “a better job” of explaining why the provincial minimum wage needs to rise.

On Monday, a survey was released in which 61 per cent of respondents said the implementation of a $15 minimum wage should be delayed, but Christina Gray said her government won’t be laying off the gas pedal.

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The survey was conducted by Return on Insight on behalf of Restaurants Canada, a lobby group that has been actively campaigning against the wage hike — an NDP election promise — for more than a year.

Gray thinks the campaign has been effective, hence her need to focus on how the wage hike will help Albertans.

Restaurants Canada vice-president Mark von Schellwitz said his group doesn’t have a philosophical objection to a $15 minimum wage — it’s a timing issue.

With the economy in dire straits and restaurant sales down by double digits, he said hiking wages will “hurt the very people it’s supposed to help.”