October 1, 2025
RED FM News Desk
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is defending her province’s minimum wage as it prepares to become the lowest in the country.
On Wednesday, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island will all raise their minimum wages, leaving Alberta at $15 an hour — unchanged since 2018, when then-premier Rachel Notley’s NDP government set it as the highest in Canada.
Smith argued Tuesday that Alberta offers other advantages, such as no provincial sales tax, and said increasing the wage would not address the province’s high youth unemployment rate.
Since 2019, a lower minimum wage of $13 an hour has applied to students under 18 in Alberta.
The Opposition NDP has urged the United Conservative Party government to raise the minimum wage and tie it to inflation. Smith, however, said her focus is on employer incentive programs aimed at creating more jobs for young people.
“We’re going to see if we can start seeing those numbers go down and then we can have further conversations,” Smith told reporters in Calgary. “But I don’t want to put any more barriers in place to employers hiring young people.”
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