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The Toronto Star irritated fiscal conservatives into apoplexy Sunday when it published an above-the-fold, front-page “exclusive,” reporting that daycare costs in Ontario are rising now that the province’s minimum wage increase has taken effect.

The phrase on the tip of the tongue of everyone with even a rudimentary understanding of economics was: “No kidding!” As critics of the minimum wage hike have been saying for quite some time, the very predictable result of a forced increase to a seller’s costs is an increase in that seller’s prices.

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People can reasonably disagree about whether the overall effects on the entire provincial economy will be positive or negative, based on empirical evidence from other jurisdictions. (Certainly, economists and other experts are divided on this point.)

It is troubling when a newspaper thinks prices rising after a mandated wage increase is surprising enough to warrant front-page treatment

But it’s troubling when a newspaper — and especially a newspaper that considers itself well-versed enough on the matter to have taken an official editorial position in favour of a minimum wage increase — thinks prices rising after a mandated wage increase is surprising enough to warrant front-page treatment.

This is exactly what logic and every introductory micro econ textbook in the land predicted would happen! It’s also what the Star itself noted might happen. About six months before writing Sunday’s shocker, the paper’s social justice reporter, Laurie Monsebraaten, wrote a story headlined “Minimum wage hike could spell spike in child care fees, daycare operator warns.”