The province has introduced legislation to end the Power Workers’ Union’s job action at Ontario Power Generation, but there are no plans to deem the employees an essential service, which would forbid them from ever striking.

As the legislature resumed for an emergency sitting Monday to prevent the first hydro work stoppage since 1985, Energy Minister Greg Rickford said the labour situation is “a very serious matter,” but that “essential service does not and has not formed any part of the legislation or our discussions.

“We’re focused on creating a fair mechanism through arbitration as a result of this legislation to make sure that Ontario’s electricity supply continues uninterrupted,” Rickford said.

The minister emphasized that the Progressive Conservative government was moving swiftly to end the dispute after the unionized workers voted twice this year to reject the OPG contract offer.

“We understand constitutional rights, but we’re here to talk about the lights — specifically, keeping them on,” said Rickford, adding it was “irresponsible” for the opposition New Democrats to try to prolong the strike.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, however, said the government has been “unnecessarily alarmist” about the possibility of a strike by OPG workers because it knows “that’s never going to happen” with the PC majority in the legislation easily able to pass the bill preventing any stoppage.

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“The government didn’t even try to solve this problem … they went to the biggest hammer available,” said Horwath.

“There will be no rolling blackouts.”

New Democrats oppose the legislation because Horwath says it infringes on the Charter rights of workers to collective bargaining.

NDP MPPs refused to give unanimous consent for its passage Monday, meaning it will be debated Tuesday and Wednesday before the PC majority can get it through the house, likely by Thursday.

That means members, who rose Dec. 6 for the winter break, will be at Queen’s Park all week.

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser blamed the Tories for the standoff, saying they “should have been doing more” to prevent the crisis.

“For 33 years we’ve never had a labour disruption with the generation of electricity, specifically with the nuclear plants,” said Fraser.

“People send us to Queen’s Park and say, ‘Take care of the things that are important to me.’”

Labour Minister Laurie Scott noted that 98 per cent of all union negotiations in Ontario are resolved at the bargaining table.

But Scott stressed the government had to intervene because OPG generates about half of the province’s electricity.

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“We want to see a fair deal reached between the parties,” said Scott, adding her legislation “will remove the risk of widespread power outages and allow dispute resolution to happen appropriately.”

The 6,000 PWU members, who operate the Pickering and Darlington nuclear stations as well as 66 hydroelectric stations, rejected OPG’s offer of a 6.6 per cent wage increase over three years.

On Friday, that triggered a 21-day period in which the utility and its employees take steps to begin shutting down the plants.

Robert Benzie is the Star's Queen's Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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