by post-secondary educators, where the unions complained of precarious working conditions and predatory wages, in some cases caused by chronic under-funding from the provincial government. Her legislation to force an end to the strikes succeeded in the first case, but failed in the second. Economy On January 30, 2014, Wynne announced her government increased the minimum wage from $10.25 to $11 after four years of freeze on the rate and introduced legislation to ensure future increases to the minimum wage to keep up with the CPI (Consumer Price Index). Wynne also announced a partnership with Cisco Canada that would create 1,700 new jobs. Prior to these announcements, Wynne had announced tax relief for small businesses by increasing the employers' health-tax exemption from $400,000 to $450,000. Between late October and early November 2014, Wynne went on a trade mission to China along with other provincial premiers. Subsequently, the trade mission attracted approximately a billion dollars worth of investment and 1,800 new jobs to Ontario. After Honda announced plans to invest $857 million in 3 plants, Wynne also announced that her government would invest 10 percent of the total invested by Honda. By the end of 2015, the unemployment rate in Ontario had become lower than the national average. The Conference Board of Canada also found that Ontario's economy had the second strongest growth rate of all provinces in 2015 behind British Columbia (BC), and was projected to be in the top 3 for 2016 among BC and Manitoba. 2014 election Throughout the spring of 2014, there was widespread speculation that a general election would be triggered upon the presentation of the 2014–15 provincial budget, due to recent gains in by-elections by the NDP, whose support was required for the Liberal government's budget to pass. On May 1, 2014, the Wynne government handed down its budget, which was described as "NDP-friendly" by many pundits. One Queen's Park columnist called the budget, "the most progressive one this province has seen since [former NDP leader] Bob Rae was Premier." In it, the Liberals projected a $12.5 billion deficit for the 2014-15 fiscal year, with an attempt to eliminate the deficit by 2017–18. The budget included wage increases for home care and child care workers were announced, a $29 billion transportation plan to fund roads, bridges, and transit around the province, an Ontario Registered Pension Plan, which would act as a supplement to the Canada