Press Release: Ontario Businesses Welcome Minimum Wage Increase - And Say It's Not Enough

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 2, 2026

Ontario Businesses Welcome Minimum Wage Increase - And Say It's Not Enough

Better Way Alliance also calls for commercial rent relief and elimination of double taxation on business insurance

TORONTO — While many business groups have pushed back on Ontario's minimum wage increases, the Better Way Alliance (BWA), Canada's Good Jobs Business Network, is taking a different position: the increase to $17.95 per hour on October 1, 2026 is welcome - and the province needs to go further. The BWA is calling on Ontario to pair the wage increase with immediate relief on commercial fixed costs that are pushing good employers to the breaking point.

The BWA's two immediate provincial asks are:

• Eliminate the Retail Sales Tax (RST) on commercial insurance premiums. Ontario businesses are currently taxed twice on the same insurance cost - once through the RST and again through the Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) - with no way to claim either charge back. It's a cost that lands hardest on small and independent operators.
• Introduce commercial rent relief. Without mechanisms to stabilize occupancy costs, wage increases and rising operating expenses will continue to force closures among the independent employers most likely to offer good jobs and invest in their communities.

$17.95 is a step forward. But $14 more a week doesn't change a worker's life, and it doesn't save a business being crushed by rent it can't negotiate and insurance taxes it can't recover," said Aaron Binder, Director of the Better Way Alliance. "If Ontario is serious about supporting workers and the businesses that employ them, wages and fixed cost inputs have to move together.

BWA's Fixed Cost Crunch report documents the gap. Toronto retail rents increased 142 per cent between 2019 and 2024 - from roughly $19 to nearly $50 per square foot - including a single-year spike of nearly 70 per cent. The pressure isn't limited to Toronto: businesses across Ontario, in cities, towns, and rural communities, are facing lease renewals at multiples of what they were paying five years ago, with no negotiating power and no legislative protection. Over that same period, minimum wage increased 23 per cent.

Wage increases return to communities through the local multiplier effect. That extra $14 a week goes to the corner store, the transit pass, the lunch spot down the street - and those businesses pay staff, who spend locally too. Fixed cost increases extract that same money and send it elsewhere. Reducing the insurance tax burden and introducing basic commercial rent protections would stabilize the small business economy - helping businesses significantly invest more than just $14 a week in Ontario's workers.

About the Better Way Alliance The Better Way Alliance is Canada's Good Jobs Business Network — a coalition of more than 100 businesses committed to fair wages, decent working conditions, and thriving local economies. Learn more at betterway.ca.

Media Contact: Aaron Binder | 416-677-5088 | aaron@betterwayalliance.ca