UCP Fails at Job Creation

“Job Creation Student Wage” fails to create jobs for students- Smith blames kids not wanting to drive

Youth unemployment is a growing concern in Canada. Unfortunately, Alberta has the distinction of leading the rest of the country. We have the highest youth unemployment of any province.

Are you wondering how this can be? You may also remember when the UCP cut student minimum wage by $2/hr with the “Job Creation Student Wage”. Jason Kenney said the policy “still gives a good wage to young Albertans compared to other provinces, while giving employers resources to hire more of them.” The UCP promised that lowering the minimum wage for students to $13/hour would create jobs and opportunities for young people.

I reviewed what little legislative debate exists on the student minimum wage, but I wasn’t able to find any data from the government to back up their case that a lower student minimum wage would spur job creation. It is not the norm in Canada. From my brief scan, Ontario is the only other province with a lower minimum wage for students.

The pandemic makes it difficult to track exactly what the effects of the lower student wage were since all unemployment skyrocketed during that time. But in 2018/2019 youth unemployment hovered between 10-12% and it’s never really improved from there. Post pandemic it’s been 12-14%. Right now it’s just over 17%. Everywhere dealt with the unemployment caused by Covid; that doesn’t explain why Alberta has the highest youth unemployment rate now. So, why isn’t the UCPs Job Creation Student Wage working to create the more jobs we were promised?

Floundering for answers, the Premier suggested at a recent townhall that the cause of youth unemployment was that 16 year olds aren’t getting their driver’s license anymore.

First of all, I didn’t learn how to drive until I was 24 and that didn’t stop me from using public transit to get myself around to the 2 or 3 jobs I always had. So I know it’s possible to work without driving! Calgary is a car city, to be sure, but it is absolutely possible for young people to navigate to work by foot, by bike, or by transit (especially if they live in our big cities).

Driving is very expensive. Vehicle purchase, maintenance, registration, winter tires, gas, and the highest car insurance premiums in the country. How many 16-year-olds can afford to drive these days? It’s possible the Premier thought that parents would shoulder this expense for their children, but we are deep in an affordability crisis. For many families, adding an additional vehicle and all it’s costs simply isn’t possible.

The UCP’s “Job Creation Student Wage” did nothing to spur job creation for young people. The same year they also canceled STEP grants. For a savings of $8 million, we lost 3,000 student jobs (0.001% of that year’s government spending). These were bad policy decisions.

It’s been six years and we are lagging behind provinces who left the student minimum wage at the same rate as the standard minimum wage. I believe this was an Order in Council (not even a piece of legislation), which is great news because that means the UCP can rescind this failed policy right away. Maybe then they can use their power and resources to focus on real solutions to the youth unemployment problem.

cover photo credit- CBC News, 2025.