Ontario teacher pay freeze bill introduced
Ontario's governing Liberals introduced controversial legislation on Monday that would force new contracts on thousands of Ontario teachers.
The bill would rein in wages and cut benefits, as well as give the government the power to ban lockouts and strikes, which some unions are condemning as an unprecedented attack on their constitutional rights.
If the legislation doesn't pass, old contracts with Ontario teachers will automatically roll over, giving them pay raises and benefits the Liberals say the province can't afford. The governing Liberals hope to have the bill passed by next week.
Teachers who oppose the government's demands are planning a rally Tuesday at Queen's Park to protest the legislation.
They say there will be no labour disruptions this fall, but aren't ruling out job action later in the year.
Meanwhile a major union representing secondary school teachers agreed to postpone strike votes that were planned for Monday. In a news release, Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) union president Ken Coran said the strike votes are being "suspended," a move Education Minister Laurel Broten called "encouraging."
The minority Liberals need support from one of the opposition parties to pass the legislation.
Opposition Leader Tim Hudak insists his party will support the bill, while NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has said she will not.
Hudak said he would prefer a bill that imposes province-wide public sector wage freezes, something Premier Dalton McGuinty says is unconstitutional.
"Like I said, if I've got a half loaf I'm going to take it," said Hudak. "But I am very worried that there have been some tradeoffs here that are handing over the keys to our schools to the union leaders," he said.
NDP house leader Gilles Bisson said the Liberals are trying to create a crisis to win two potentially game-changing byelections on Sept. 6.
They've spread fear that the school year is in jeopardy to distract voters from the fiasco at the province's troubled air ambulance service and a $190-million bill to cancel a gas plant that saved Liberal seats in the last election, he said.
The Liberals have a shot at a majority government and are willing to do whatever it takes to win in Vaughan and Kitchener-Waterloo, no matter what the cost, he said.
"The Liberals are always the same," Bisson said. "It's about doing what's right for them and not necessarily what's right for Ontarians."
The return of the legislature also means the return of the hearings on Ornge, Ontario's troubled air ambulance service.
The committee that's examining the scandal surrounding Ornge, which is currently under a criminal investigation, is scheduled to meet Wednesday. But it's not yet clear who may be called in to testify at the hearing.
