EDITORIAL: Ford goes slowly on wage restraint
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s bill to cap public sector wage and benefit hikes at 1% annually for three years is a reasonable restraint measure.
It will apply to over 1 million union and non-union employees paid by the provincial government who work for the Ontario civil service, the OPP, school boards, universities, colleges, hospitals, long-term care facilities, Children’s Aid Societies and the Ornge air ambulance service.
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It will not apply to public sector workers employed by municipalities such as inside and outside workers, police and firefighters.
The province hopes to save up to $500 million a year going forward out of the $72 billion annually it pays in compensation, about half of all government spending.
While the public sector unions are already declaring war on the 1% compensation hike, this is relatively mild restraint legislation in a time of double-digit annual deficits and a crushing public debt left by the previous Liberal government.
First, the 1% annual increase is not out of line with last year’s average 1.66% wage hike in the public sector.
Second, the law won’t be retroactive, meaning it will apply only to future labour contracts, not break existing ones.
Third, it does not prevent public sector employees from moving up existing salary grids based on experience and performance.
The reality is that both former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty, and former NDP premier Bob Rae, imposed far more severe restraint measures on public sector workers during their administrations than what is contained in Ford’s bill.
Once passed into law, it will inevitably face legal challenges by one or more public sector unions arguing it is unconstitutional.
But the Ford government points out that similar restraint legislation passed by then-prime minister Stephen Harper’s government in 2009 was upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Ford’s restraint bill is further evidence that, union rhetoric to the contrary, he is not looking for a fight with public sector workers.
That was previously indicated by Ford’s approach to downsizing the size of the public sector through voluntary attrition, wherever possible, rather than involuntary layoffs.
While all the usual suspects will complain that Ford is behaving like a dictator in introducing this legislation, the allegation, based on this bill, is absurd.
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