Finance Minister Duncan meets media to discuss public sector ‘compensation’

TORONTO – Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is meeting with reporters this afternoon to talk about public sector “compensation,” but the Liberals won’t say if he will announce legislation to freeze wages.

The media will get a technical briefing a half-hour before Duncan goes before the microphones in a Queen’s Park hallway at 2:00 p.m.

The Liberal government warned it would legislate a two-year wage freeze for Ontario’s broader public sector _ about 1.3 million workers _ if it couldn’t negotiate zero-increase deals.

It already imposed a contract on public school teachers that allows younger teachers to get raises but freezes salaries for the majority.

Duncan has been complaining about recent contracts negotiated at universities and by firefighters that provided salary increases, and said the province would not fund them.

The Liberals say they need the wage freeze to eliminate a $13 billion deficit and avoid layoffs and service cuts.

The government has said it will not open up existing contracts, but Duncan said recently everyone paid for by the Ontario taxpayer can expect a two-year wage freeze in their next contact if they don’t agree to one now.

The Progressive Conservatives have been demanding a legislated wage freeze for the public sector, and supported the minority government’s bill imposing a new deal on teachers.

However, that controversy helped the New Democrats take the Kitchener-Waterloo riding from the Tories in a byelection this month, which also prevented the Liberals from getting their majority.