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VICTORIA — The B.C. NDP government has altered an election promise to implement a $15 minimum wage by 2021, and will instead give an independent review panel free rein to suggest a new, possibly longer, timeline.

Labour Minister Harry Bains said he agrees with criticism from Green party Leader Andrew Weaver that mandating the review panel to a 2021 timeline is too restrictive and locks in the outcome.

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So Bains said he’ll remove the deadline when he announces details of his Fair Wages Commission in the next few weeks.

“I think Mr. Weaver made a pretty good point,” Bains said in an interview. “We’re going to work with him. He’s saying that we should not be prescriptive of the fair wages commission and I agree with him. I think we should give them the authority and mandate to decide when we reach $15, and how we reach $15.”

The new timeline could be “anything they come back with,” he said. But the overarching goal will remain getting to a $15 an hour minimum wage eventually, added Bains.