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Ministry of Labour
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Backgrounders

Fair Wages Commission ― member biographies

Commission chair: Marjorie Griffin Cohen

Marjorie is an economist who is professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University. She has written extensively in the areas of political economy and public policy, with special emphasis on issues concerning the Canadian economy and labour. She has also served on several boards and commissions in B.C., and was instrumental in establishing the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in B.C., where she was its first chair. Among the various awards she has received over her career, she recently was the recipient of the 2016 John Kenneth Galbraith Prize in economics and social justice.

Commission member and labour-force representative: Ivan Limpright

For more than 30 years, Limpright has served as an accomplished union leader. Since 1994, he has held various roles in the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, including being its president since 2006. Known for his capacity to build strategic alliances with organizations that support and encourage the strength and growth of working people, Limpright has worked on several boards in the past decade. He is a graduate of the Labour and Worklife program at Harvard and is completing studies at the Rotman’s leadership program at the University of Toronto.

Commission member, and business and industry representative: Ken Peacock

Ken is chief economist and vice-president at the Business Council of British Columbia, an association representing 260 large and mid-sized companies that together account for approximately one-quarter of all jobs in the province. In this capacity, Peacock contributes to the council’s work on economic and policy issues of interest to the business community. Peacock was born and raised in B.C. He attained his master’s degree in economics from Simon Fraser University, is a past president of the Association of Professional Economists of B.C. and a member of B.C.'s Economic Forecast Council.