Raise minimum wage: Liberal leadership candidate

B.C.'s minimum wage should be raised to $10 an hour over a two-year period, according to Moira Stilwell, the first and only candidate to enter the race for the B.C. Liberal leadership so far.

Stilwell said the government must take immediate action to help the province's neediest families, and that means increasing the minimum wage.

There should also be similar increases in B.C.'s $6 training wage for first-time workers, she said.

Stilwell says most minimum wage earners are young people who often struggle to make ends meet, and they need help. Bringing B.C.'s minimum wage into line with what's being paid in the rest of Canada is a step in the right direction, she said.

Her call came the same day an anti-poverty group demanded the province increase the wage in an effort to combat child poverty.

The current wage of $8 an hour is the lowest in Canada and hasn't been increased since Premier Gordon Campbell took office in 2001.

Earlier this month, B.C.'s legislative finance committee, chaired by potential leadership candidate Liberal MLA John Les, also recommend looking at raising the wage.

According to the B.C. Federation of Labour, about 200,000 people in B.C. earn less than $10 an hour.