Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present to the House a petition of 239 signatures from my riding of Parkdale—High Park in Toronto on the federal minimum wage. A poll released last week showed that three out of four Canadians believed the minimum wage should be at least $10 an hour.
The petitioners recognize that the federal minimum wage was eliminated in 1996 by the Liberal government, that a $10 an hour minimum wage just approaches the poverty level for a single worker and that the importance of a federal minimum wage would extend beyond the number of workers covered by it because it serves as a best practice for labour standards across the country.
They call upon the Parliament of Canada to ensure that workers in federal jurisdiction are paid a fair minimum wage by passing my Bill C-375 to re-establish a federal minimum wage and set it at $10 an hour.