Finance minister wants municipalities to follow Ontario lead and freeze wages
Posted March 26, 2010 1:54 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – One day after announcing a wage freeze for most public sector workers in Ontario, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is suggesting municipalities follow his lead.
Thursday’s budget didn’t include towns and cities in the plan to immediately freeze non-unionized public sector wages and cap compensation for unionized workers for two years as their contracts expire.
Duncan, in an interview with The Canadian Press, said municipalities are a separate order of government with their own taxation powers, but adds he would welcome a move by them to take the same path on staff wages.
The biggest cost for most local governments is salaries for police and firefighters, and Duncan says mayors and councils could negotiate with their unions to keep a lid on salaries.
He said municipalities must realize that money from the province will be tighter in the next few years, and it won’t be funding increases in overall compensation for workers.
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario said it would like to hear exactly what Duncan has in mind, especially since so many of their collective agreements are determined through interest arbitration.
That’s where an arbitrator determines what wage increases will be, and the association notes they likely won’t give an increase of zero.
