Timmins community reacts to 2022's living wage increase

Every year, Living Wage Ontario calculates what people need to earn to pay for things like shelter, food, transportation and clothing.

The living wage for Timmins and other cities like Sudbury and Sault Ste. Mare is now $19.70 an hour.

Local economic officials said this is the first year, Timmins has had a living wage calculated for the community. They said this helps them understand what workers need to get by.

“Working minimum wage, you have people working two or three jobs just to be able to support themselves to be able to stay at that level of poverty,” said Trisha Turner, the executive director of the Cochrane District Social Planning Council.

“But with (a) living wage, it actually includes a certain amount of savings so that they can work their way up."

Noella Rinaldo, the director of community economic development for the Timmins Economic Development (TEDC) Corporation to CTV News she thinks it is a really great tool to be able to attract employees.

“If you’re able to say I’m a living wage employer ... I think that’s a really great point for employees to look at as the possibility of working somewhere.”

The living wage breakdown for Timmins suggests:

• rent is $13,130.00/year for a one bedroom apartment (including insurance and utilities)
• food is 15.9 per cent of income
• Internet, cell phones, medical and clothing expenses together total are 33 per cent of income
• transportation is 14 per cent of income
• child care is 5.2 per cent of income

The Ontario Living Wage Network calls on the province to help.

“The laws that govern the rentals and rental process, you know this is squarely on the province; they can bring in stronger rent controls, make more affordable rent-control housing," said the network’s communications coordinator, Craig Pickthorne.

Downtown Timmins officials agree and said small businesses will be challenged if they have to pay their employees more.

“The federal government can look at deregulating CRTC so Internet costs and cell phone costs can become more reasonable," said Cindy Campbell, the executive director of the Downtown Timmins BIA.

"I think we can look at subsidies for farmers that’ll bring the cost of food down; trucking companies-gas subsidies,” she added.

Employers are not obligated to pay a living wage, but if they choose to do so, they can be certified that they are a living wage employer and advertise that as a way to attract workers.

The full report from the Ontario Living Wage Network can be found here.