McGuinty Government Argues It Is ‘Protecting Public Services While Eliminating Deficit’
A Submission from the Office of Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan
(Niagara At Large is posting the following release for our readers’ information. This announcement follows in the wake of a recently passed bill, tabled by Ontario’s minority Liberal government and supported by the opposition Tories, imposing a two-year wage freeze and strike ban on the province’s elementary and secondary school teachers.)
Queen’s Park, Sept. 26, 2012,Ontario is planning to introduce and consult on draft legislation that, if passed, would restrain compensation for employees of the Broader Public Sector (BPS), as well as all executives and managers across the BPS and Ontario Public Service (OPS).
Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan
The Protecting Public Services Act would, if passed:
- Restrain compensation for two years for unionized employees of the BPS and require employers to negotiate agreements that do not reduce services.
- Freeze earnings for two years for managers who are eligible for performance pay in the BPS, OPS and agencies so they would not earn more this year and next than they did last year.
- Introduce a permanent salary cap for new executives at no more than double the Premier’s salary.
The draft legislation also contains changes to ensure that the interest arbitration process is transparent, accountable and efficient. These proposed amendments were previously included in the 2012 Budget Bill.
If passed, the draft legislation would apply its compensation restraint measures upon proclamation, but not to existing collective agreements. It would respect the bargaining process for future collective agreements while ensuring that those agreements are subject to review and approval until the provincial budget is balanced.
All parties in the broader public sector would be encouraged to engage in a full collective bargaining process and employers would confirm whether resulting agreements meet the province’s fiscal goals without reducing services.
When the Finance Minister or delegate determines that collective agreements do not meet these goals, parties would be given another opportunity to collectively bargain. After consultation, a collective agreement consistent with the government’s goals may be set by the government.
The McGuinty government is taking strong action to achieve its fiscal targets by reducing costs while protecting front-line services. This announcement builds on the strong action already taken through the Putting Students First Act, 2012 and other measures outlined in the 2012 Budget, such as a five-year wage freeze for MPPs and pay restraint measures for executives at Ontario’s hospitals, colleges, universities, school boards and agencies for four years.
QUOTES
“A compensation freeze would protect the jobs of thousands of hard-working Ontarians. These are people who provide valuable service to Ontario families. We are focused, more than ever, on eliminating the deficit, which is the most important thing we can do to strengthen our economy and help it create jobs.” — Dwight Duncan, Minister of Finance
QUICK FACTS
- This proposed draft legislation would cover 2,295 collective agreements covering approximately 481,000 Ontario public sector workers.
- Compensation costs account for the majority of Ontario-funded program spending, either paid directly through the OPS or as part of the government’s transfer payments to hospitals, universities and other public sector partners.
- Legislation would apply to the Ontario Public Service, agencies and the broader public sector including hospitals, other health sector employers, universities, colleges, hydro entities and not-for-profit entities that receive at least $1 million in government funding.
- School boards (including the Provincial Schools Authority) and employers in the municipal sector – other than municipal long-term care homes and public health units –would be exempt from the compensation measures regarding collective bargaining introduced for the Broader Public Sector.
- The 2012 Budget extended the pay freeze for MPPs by a further two years — for a total of five years.
LEARN MORE
Read the draft proposed legislation and compendium.
Read a Long Term Plan for Public Sector Compensation.
Read the McGuinty government’s announcement on freezing salaries for Ontario Public Service Managers.
Read the 2012 Ontario Budget.
Read the Addendum to the 2012 Ontario Budget: Report on Expense Management Measures.
(A Footnote from NAL – As the above media release was being circulated, public sector unions in the province and the NDP were already vowing to fight this move.
It is also important to note that the above announcement does not apply to public sector workers employed by municipalities, including police and firefighters whose wages have increased in recent years well above the rate of inflation and what a number of municipal councils in Niagara and other regions of Ontario say is municipal taxpayers’ ability to pay.)
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post below. NAL only posts comments from individuals who also share their first and last names.)
Niagara At Large 
Cut parliamentarians’ wages by 50%, cut their expense allowances, reduce their pensions to equate with everyone else’s. Like that’s gonna happen! What’s good for the goose, as they say.
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I say on the federal level, scrap their pensions altogether …that will surely make them live like the rest of us. I work more than eighty hours a week, and I will be getting no pension at all apart from what the CPP/OAS/GIS has to offer, so this is why a large amount of us coming up to age of 55 today are likely never going to retire because we cannot afford to do so.
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The Sunshine LIst is NO joke in fact it is basically a Love/Hate scenario “Loved” by the people enjoying the perks and the knowledge they are set for life at the trough and Yes!! Hated by so many others and for so many reasons”
This freeze should have been administered years ago and now it is like a tidal wave increasing year by year and yes furthermore as the peoples, our fathers, mothers and grandparents on OAS suffer in silence and indignity.
The Liberals gave themselves a 25% pay increases a few years ago and thought nothing of it for they knew they would not have the sheep clamoring at their door,
They, the Liberals spend taxpayers money like there is no tomorrow and hopefully there will not be any tomorrows for them but people you have to want them gone bad enough to get off your collective asses and vote the bas……s out.
The Late Tommy Douglas in so many speeches used the terms “White Cats and Black Cats” and in these speeches he spoke eloquently of these “Cats” and how they eat the mice, (the little folk)
referring of course to the cats being the Liberals and the Conservatives. So mice if you do not want to be eaten get out and vote the cats out.
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Never, ever believe a politician….especially a Liberal!
I would put my trust in Satan before I would ever believe a single word of what Dalton and Duncan say….It’s been time tested and proven that Liberals are corrupt…federally and provincially..
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Dalton is sure starting to act like that guy that took over as leader in Germany back in the 1930s. Unfortunately, Mrs Hudak’s little boy Timmie will quickly act like the guy that was running Italy back then too, and join in this Nazi move!
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It is about time. I have seen the productivity of this sector from a number of perspectives and found them to be lazy, complacent and wasteful that wouldn’t last a week in the private sector.
Funny thing though; wasn’t it COMRADE McGuinty and his merry band of incompetents the ones that increased public sector salaries, right down to regions and municipalities, in a manner that was not sustainable.
Let’s not forget that it was this crew of clowns that introduced full day daycare (sorry kindergarten) to the tune of billions, pay 10X the going rate for electricity to FIT and MicroFit suppliers. Wasn’t it this crew of self-serving piglets that tried to cover up ORNGE, EHealth and the Mississauga power plant scandals to the tune of over a billion dollars.
Imagine the hospitals, social services and business incentives that would exist if we had those resources available to us now when we need them the most.
Again its about time, but it is too little too late and it just shows how out of touch with reality the Ontario Liberals are. Just sayin….
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There are no more good jobs anymore. The ones that exist are currently being occupied by job hogs and the rest of us that otherwise qualify for better paying work have to wait for these people to retire to even have a chance at a better life. I am in latter stages of middle age and because of the timing of the 1980 and 1990 recessions, I have been unable to get a foothold in any well paying job because the unions insist that any new jobs that come back or that were created, be given to those that already worked there and got laid off … now they’re holding the line on hiring – period, and the rest of us that have not lucked out like these people are stuck on less than subsistence income, as prices are going through the roof for energy, groceries and housing. It is about time we start to push for two thing: more and better paying jobs, as well as a stronger social safety net for those for whatever reason cannot work or have caregiving responsibilities.
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The so-called “private sector” is actually a looter of the public treasury. I guess that’s why they call some of these corporations “corporate welfare bums” …
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1256494–corporate-welfare-flourishes-in-lean-times
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