British Columbia Federation of Labour

About a thousand Prince George residents signed up to support the efforts to increase the minimum wage to $10 in a petition blitz before the junior hockey playoff game between the Prince George Cougars and the Kamloops Blazers March 26.

B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair was impressed with the response from hockey fans— many of whom sought out the petition as the crowd thronged to watch the fourth and final game in the series, which Prince George won.

Sinclair also sat down with representatives of a number of different Prince George unions and with local leaders of the Canadian Federation of Students to map out $10 NOW campaign strategy for the community.

In addition, he met with the president of the local chamber of commerce, who earlier in the week had told the Prince George media that increasing the minimum rate to $10 wouldn’t have much of an impact on most local businesses.

Ten days earlier, the petition effort also won strong backing from transit users outside an East Vancouver skytrain station.  Young workers were joined by Vancouver East MP Libby Davies in the event.

Sinclair says the signature count so far is more than 3,000 on hard copy and electronic petitions.

Meanwhile, Creston became the ninth B.C. municipality to back the $10 NOW call.  Town councillors in the East Kootenays community voted earlier in March in support of a resolution urging the Campbell government to increase the minimum to $10. 

Other communities supporting the move include Burnaby, North Vancouver City, Squamish, Port Alberni, Oliver, Nanaimo, Surrey and Vernon. Half a dozen B.C. newspapers have also endorsed the increase on their editorial pages.