QUEEN’S PARK – It became even clearer today that when the Ontario government said they would freeze public sector wages, they were lying. After news last week that senior staff at the Toronto District School Board were getting over a million dollars in wage increases, news the governing Liberals tried to bury by releasing the TDSB audit on the same day as the Auditor General’s report, new details have emerged showing that similar wage increases and bonuses have been awarded across the province.

“Kathleen Wynne wants to have it both ways,” said Leone upon hearing the news. “She wants to claim she is trying to reduce the deficit by keeping public sector salaries in line while she willfully turns a blind eye to those exploiting the loopholes.”

The governing Liberals claim they want to keep public sector salaries in line, and even fought teachers unions about it last year, but they have not been able to keep costs in the broader public sector down, particularly at board and management levels. Senior staff at ORNGE, OLG, the TDSB and now more school boards across the province are being awarded handsome pay hikes, while front line workers are being told to tighten their belts.

“I think it is despicable that the government can tell front line workers to take a pay cut and then not impose the same restraint at the board staff level.  If the Minister does not ask these senior staff members who were given wage increases to return the money, she is sending a signal that the government’s ‘wage freeze’ only applies to front line workers.”

The McGuinty-Wynne 2010 wage freeze for non-unionized workers demonstrated then that the Liberals were not prepared to stand up to the powerful public sector unions. Now, other public sector workers, many of whom already earn more than $100,000, are discovering that the government won’t do anything to stop their salary increases. 

Tim Hudak and the Ontario PC Caucus have been calling for a true, across the board public sector wage freeze for years. The Liberals under McGuinty, and now with Wynne, have consistently shown that they do not have what it takes to impose such a freeze.

“People in Ontario who have seen the manufacturing job losses we have suffered under this government will not stand for public employees getting big raises,” concluded Leone. “This is unacceptable, and I hope the Minister will see the error of her ways and ask that the money be repaid.”