So the government that’s clawing back cash from the province’s doctors has quietly given 8,400 civil service managers pay hikes that average around $6,905 each and that will cost taxpayers $58 million.

This despite the province’s so-called “net zero” budget policy — meaning any pay hikes would have to be made within the current budget.

It comes after bitter battles with the province’s teacher unions and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) that represents 130,000 public sector workers, including jail guards. Guards last week voted 67% against ratifying a tentative pay deal negotiated with the government that fit within the “net zero” restriction.

“As far as I can see, these dramatic pay hikes for managers mean that fiscal framework just went out the window,” OPSEU president Warren “Smokey” Thomas said Wednesday. “It looks to me like the era of pay freezes — which are really pay cuts, after inflation — is over.”

Treasury Board President Deb Matthews says the pay hike was needed to keep good staff and because “salaries are no longer competitive with the market.”

She said the pay freeze has caused “retention and recruitment challenges” in the public service.

One in five managers is eligible to retire in the next three years.

“We need to make sure we are attracting and retaining top talent to fill these roles,” Matthews said in a statement.

“In some cases employees are earning 59% less than their peers in the broader public sector and other jurisdictions.”

During the pay freeze, 1,300 non-unionized employees have chosen demotions to unionized jobs with better pay, she said.

That’s not what the numbers say. You only have to look at the annual Sunshine List of government workers making more than $100,000 a year.

Figures for 2014 released in March show, for the first time ever, the number of public servants making six or seven figures topped 100,000.

(Interestingly, interim ombudsman Barbara Finlay says her office will soon hire an additional 50 staff to meet their new mandate of probing municipalities, universities, schools and hospitals. She could give no estimate of how much that will cost. So much for a hiring freeze.)

I’m not buying Matthews’ explanation. Public sector pay, perks and job security far outstrip those of the private sector. They’re tough to fire, have lavish pensions — and have zero appreciation of the kind of stresses that afflict private sector workers, where downsizing and layoffs are routine and job security is non-existent.

This is a government that’s staring down an accumulated debt of more than $300 billion and has a deficit of about $10 billion.

When they lose money, they hike taxes. When the private sector loses money, they lay off workers.

You’re telling me it’s hard to keep good workers in the public sector? Let ’em go. There’s plenty of folk in the private sector who would love a crack at their jobs.

•••

• In 2014, 111,438 public servants made the Sunshine List, up 14% or 13,474 employees from the previous year.

• According to the Fraser Institute, Canada’s government workers (federal, provincial, municipal) enjoyed a 9.7% wage premium, on average, over their private sector counterparts in 2013. When unionization status is factored in, that figure drops to 6.2%.

• 88% of government workers were covered by a registered pension plan compared to 24% of private sector workers.

• Of those covered by a registered pension plan, 94% of government workers enjoyed a defined benefit pension compared to 47% of private sector workers.

• Government workers retire earlier than their private sector counterparts — about 2.4 years, on average.

• And government workers took more time off for personal reasons in 2013 than their private sector counterparts, 12.1 days on average compared to 8.1 days.

— Source, Fraser Institute