Galen Weston is
fighting back to criticism since he said the minimum wage increases in Ontario
and Quebec will cost Loblaws $190 million per year.
Weston, who is chief
executive and president of Loblaws Companies, said he only meant to tell
shareholders how much the increases will cost the company, not to be critical
of the increases.
However, it has
taken him more than a week to make the clarification which has come after
Leadnow, an internet web page, launched a petition.
Leadnow’s
petition page accuses Weston of trying to “sabotage” the increases and says
Weston “complained
to investors about the irritating cost of paying its workers a living wage –
even though Loblaws doubled its profits last year and Weston took home five
million dollars.”
The
petition has collected around 13,000 signatures. Leadnow was founded in 2010
and is an independent, registered non-profit that has advocacy campaigns aimed
at a wide array of issues ranging from pipelines, international trade and
climate change.
