Herein lies the real problem of adults using children to telegraph political messages to other adults.
Can we please just keep our kids out of our politics?
This isn’t so much a plea to “let kids be kids” … although that’s a pretty good notion in itself.
Really, shouldn’t kids learn that a little hard work doesn’t hurt anyone?
Well, as Sean Tucker of the University of Regina’s Faculty of Business Administration points out, it doesn’t work out for every young worker.
Consider Wil Krotenko of Canora, who at 14 years of age wound up being airlifted to Edmonton’s Misericordia Community Hospital last summer on his very first day working at a local Co-op grocery store.
Krotenko suffered carbon monoxide poisoning — the result of inexperience and inadequate training in the use of a gas pressure washer. He now says his grades declined this past year due to cluster headaches from the CO2 poisoning.
Sure, such an incident is a rarity. But it does beg the question: Why do 13-year-olds need to be working in adult environments?
A labour shortage? Well, that would be a horrific reason for clearing the way for 13-year-olds to fill adult jobs, but this isn’t the reason. As Tucker noted, a high percentage of 15-year-olds in Saskatchewan can’t find work, making the Chamber’s call to lower the age to 13 that much more bizarre.
“There’s a big difference between a 13- or 14- or 15- or 16-year-old,” said Tucker, noting most other jurisdictions are strengthening child labour laws. “They have a very hard time asserting their rights.”
Tucker agreed that first jobs and paycheques “evokes a lot of pleasant memories” and acknowledged that in a farm-based place like Saskatchewan a hard-work ethic is instilled in many of us at a younger age.
But nothing in current Saskatchewan labour laws prevents anyone from allowing their kids to work on the family farm or in any family business.
The U of R prof said he also reached out to the Chamber of Commerce, but it was “still unclear in that conversation what the rationale was” for posing this to the Saskatchewan Party government.
He is bothered by the nature of this debate.
“I really hope the question of whether 13-year-olds should be working is not another political wedge in Saskatchewan,” Tucker said. “We don’t need another wedge issue. There are more important things to talk about.”
Herein lies the real problem of adults using children to telegraph political messages to other adults.
Admittedly, this perspective does come from the Chamber of Commerce — presumably, from its members — and not the government. The only thing we’ve heard from the government is that it’s not planning to address the working age issue, which former premier Brad Wall settled a decade ago, “at this time.”
So who is pushing this?
It’s certainly within the realm of possibility that someone in the Chamber with close Sask. Party government connections is floating this as a trial balloon.
After all, the legal working age in Alberta is already 13.
It nicely dovetails into the government narratives of hard-working, blue-collar people unencumbered by red-tape laws … where kids don’t really have a say in matters affecting them. Wasn’t Bill 137 mostly about parental rights and parents knowing what’s best for their kids?
Suspicious political messaging — direct or subliminal — seems to be the only justification for Saskatchewan adults changing another law affecting Saskatchewan children.
Maybe it’s better if we don’t use our kids as pawns in our political debates.
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix.
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