Jean says he won't recommend min. wage rollback as suspicion grows over secrecy of 3-year-old report

Brian Jean stands with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith after being sworn into cabinet as Jobs, Economy and Northern Development in Edmonton, Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

Alberta's jobs minister is still "reviewing" a minimum wage report delivered to the government in 2020 despite calls for Brian Jean to share it publicly – including from the man who led the panel that wrote it.

Joseph Marchand, an economics professor at the University of Alberta, chaired the Minimum Wage Expert Panel from August 2019 to February 2020.

That group of nine people was assembled by the UCP to study the previous NDP government's increase of the minimum wage from $10.20 to $15 over three years.

A final report was delivered in late February 2020 but the recommendations in it have not been made public.

Marchand is demanding the UCP government share the group's final report with Albertans before a provincial election in May.

"It was an election promise of this UCP government, so I see no reason why that information shouldn't be in the hands of Albertans," he said in an interview.

"And if Albertans think it's irrelevant, then that's their decision, but I just believe they should have that choice."

Jean made no promise to honour Marchand's request when his office was asked about it by CTV News Edmonton.

“We thank the expert panelists for their work. The minister is reviewing the report, which was prepared before the pandemic," Jean's office wrote in a Tuesday statement.

"The minister will consider how we may release the relevant research in the report given the evolution in Alberta’s labour market in the last three years."

Marchand said he and the other panelists were not paid for their work on the report but believes the process cost the taxpayers about $25,000.

Joseph Marchand, economics professor at the University of Alberta and chair of the Minimum Wage Expert Panel, in an interview with CTV News Edmonton on February, 16, 2023.

The report, and the information in it, is not his to release, he said.

But Marchand pointed to a separate report that he and fellow economist Sebastian Fossati wrote in 2020 and revised in 2022.

It concluded that the NDP's wage hike led to fewer jobs for young people and "regional employment losses… found mostly outside of Alberta’s two main cities."

It's not his job to say what Alberta's minimum wage should be, Marchand said, but thinks the province and public can learn from his research and the data it contains.

He believes the panel report is still relevant despite the fact that it's pre-pandemic because it shows what happens to job numbers when a minimum wage is hiked roughly 47 per cent in three years.

'A UCP PAY CUT…WOULD BE DEVASTATING'

After winning the 2019 election, the UCP government rolled back wages for young workers from $15 an hour to $13.

The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) cited that fact along with Marchand's public research in its accusation that the UCP now has a “secret plan to cut the minimum wage in rural Alberta.”

"Albertans deserve to know if the UCP has a plan to cut the minimum wage in rural Alberta. And they deserve to have that information before they cast their ballots in the upcoming provincial election, not afterwards. That’s why they should release the damn report,” president Gil McGowan wrote in a Tuesday news release.

“A UCP pay cut at this time of rising inflation would be devastating. It would make it even harder for people already struggling with the rising cost of living.”

Jean's office did not make him available for an interview but addressed the AFL's accusation by stating: "Minister Jean will not be recommending a lowering of the minimum wage in rural Alberta.”

The NDP also demanded the government make the report public.

“Albertans have a right to see what is up the UCP’s sleeve, especially when it was paid for with Albertans’ money," labour critic Christina Gray wrote in a statement.

"The report, which will probably say what the UCP wants to hear, that wages for the most vulnerable Albertans should be cut even more, is nonsense, but Albertans have the right to know what the UCP’s handpicked committee told them."