Hudak calls for mandatory wage freeze for public sector wages

Reducing the size and cost of government, including a legislated, mandatory wage freeze for public sector wages.

Creating the right conditions for entrepreneurs to create jobs, including reforming the apprenticeship system, cutting red tape and treating energy as economic policy.

Supporting families and giving them the relief they need, including broad based tax relief that benefits all Ontarians.

Ontario is facing a $16-billion deficit this year, which is twice the size of all the other provinces combined. Our province has also been losing 100 jobs every hour since the election last month. While Ontario is not yet in the same economic condition as Greece or Italy, these were the same warning signs those countries chose to ignore until it was too late.

“I am calling for a legislated, mandatory wage freeze to get our province back to living within its means. Ontario is losing 100 jobs every hour, on the hour. It’s not unreasonable to expect our own public sector to forgo getting a raise,” said Tim Hudak, Ontario PC Leader

“The Ontario PC Caucus’ work this fall will be rooted in the understanding that there is a difference between ‘nice to have’ and ‘must have’ - that balanced budgets should be the goal of every government and that governments cannot spend money they do not have,”added Hudak.

QUICK FACTS:

Ontario spends $10.3 billion a year just to pay interest on debt that Dalton McGuinty single-handedly doubled. If interest payments represented a Ministry budget, it would be the third largest budget after only Health and Education.

Ontario ranks 15th out of 16 in GDP per capita among similar jurisdictions in North America.

Ontario lost 75,000 full-time private sector jobs in October 2011 - that’s a rate of 100 lost private sector jobs per hour. This also marks the 58th straight month that Ontario’s jobless rate has been above the national average.