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I’d pass it on to the consumer, and if the consumer didn’t like it, I’d shut my doors, carry on and do something else

To unions and labour activists, it will vanquish poverty, spur local economies and is “only fair.” But to a worried cadre of business owners and economists, it is a looming nightmare. On the Day After $15, they say, Canada will be wracked by inflation, wayward youths, unemployment, bland hamburgers and robots taking our jobs.

“You would be paying 47 per cent more for everything I sold you,” said Tom Morris, general manager of the Kindersley Inn, a hotel and restaurant in the 5,000-person town of Kindersley, Sask.

Roughly 30 per cent of his hotel staff make the Saskatchewan minimum wage of $10.20, and 80 per cent of his workers make less than $15 an hour.

He won’t suddenly be selling more hotel rooms.

Morris, who is also president of the local chamber of commerce, won’t be slashing maintenance or staffing levels. And, after going to the trouble of opening a hotel, he said he has no intention of taking a permanent hit to its profits.

“I’d pass it on to the consumer, and if the consumer didn’t like it, I’d shut my doors, carry on and do something else,” he said.

The small businesses were responding to “what if” questions from the National Post, and to be fair, no major party is proposing a Canada-wide rise to the minimum wage.

The NDP is touting a “national minimum wage” of $15, but it would only apply to federally regulated industries such as banks, airlines and uranium mines — few of which are paying their workers in the $10-$15 range.