The Ford government was right to resist withholding employee wages | Daily News Byte

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and the province’s unions are in a boxing match, with the best interests of taxpayers hanging in the balance.

Ford has spent the last few years in court defending Bill 124, which was introduced to limit the wage growth of government employees for three years to one percent per year.

While there has been much debate over whether the law is constitutional, the original intent of Bill 124 was to help eliminate Ontario’s budget deficit and to ensure that less debt is passed on to our children and grandchildren.

It also aims to bring the wages of government employees, who, according to the Fraser Institute, on average earn 13.4 percent more than their private sector counterparts, back into the realm of reality.

Bill 124 is designed to save taxpayers $9.7 billion over three years, and it played a key role in balancing the Ford government on Ontario’s books last year.

Opponents of Bill 124 argue that it unfairly cuts the wages of government employees. But its opponents are wrong. The law allows the wages of government employees to increase by one percent per year in each of the three years.

This wage cap was implemented in 2019, before the pandemic. Months later, thousands of Ontarians lost their jobs, saw their wages drop, or their small businesses went under.

A large portion of the province is grateful for job security and modest wage growth, as are government employees.

But union bosses are far from grateful.

The unions took the government to court soon after the bill was passed, arguing that Ford’s 2019 law was unconstitutional. Ontario Superior Court Justice Markus Koehnen sided with the unions, arguing that Bill 124 violates workers’ constitutional right to collective bargaining.

The Ford government plans to appeal the decision.

Regardless of the outcome of the Ford government’s appeal, the general purpose of Bill 124 must be advanced.

The Ford government introduced Bill 124 because government employee wages were out of control. The law is a modest effort to help start the process of bringing the wages of government employees in line with the wages of their private sector counterparts.

If Bill 124 is ultimately found to be unconstitutional, Ford needs to be tough on unions and make it clear that high-wage government employees need to be brought back to Earth. If wage restraint has to happen through negotiation, so be it. Regardless, the wages of government employees must be linked to the private sector.

According to Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office, the province spent $48.2 billion on government employee wages in the 2021-22 fiscal year. That represents 28 per cent of total program spending in Ontario.

If those wages were in line with the private sector, Ontario taxpayers would save $6.5 billion annually. That money could build five new hospitals or give every Ontario taxpayer a 13 percent income tax cut.

Big government unions have been taken advantage of for far too long. Ford was right when he said it was time to end the sweetheart deals. Bill 124 is his path to achieving that goal.

But regardless of the vehicle, the goal of bringing the wages of government employees in line with reality must live on. Ford had to spend the next four years tormenting the union bosses.

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