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This article was published 17/3/2017 (1280 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With the province "leaking" money, Premier Brian Pallister made it clear on Friday who is in charge of fixing the problem — and it’s not the public-sector union leaders.

While the premier stressed he wants to respect and protect front-line workers, their union leaders have to understand they no longer run the government, he said.

"Trying to get as much co-operation as we can from public-sector leaders who’ve had it fairly good for quite a while and (have) basically run the government is challenging."

The Public Services Sustainability Act is scheduled to be introduced Monday.

Pallister told reporters Friday he’s ready to risk legal action when his government tables legislation to control public-sector wages.

He refused to say what’s in the bill, widely expected to include at least a wage freeze on future collective bargaining agreements.

The bill may also have a broad definition of which workers on a public payroll it covers, could include unpaid days off and could open existing contracts.

Monday is the deadline to table legislation — which the opposition is expected to contest — and have it pass during the session, which ends June 1.

The Tories have a list of bills they want to introduce. There’s a bill that would reduce the 169 bargaining units in health care, one that could allow the ride-booking company Uber to operate here, another that could remove the cap on postsecondary tuition increases and yet another that would deal with the hazards of legalized pot.

Pallister hinted Friday that one of the bills could beef up the identification Manitobans would need to show when they vote.

Regardless of what is unveiled, he said his government will continue to work with public-sector unions and he hopes they can help find efficiencies.

Public workers, like everyone else, must realize that there’s less security when the province is "leaking" money, he said.

"The public-sector workers of this province need to know this government has their future in mind. We’re not just going to go back to everyone else and say you’re going to have to pay higher taxes.

"The reality is we have a problem — denying it isn’t an option," Pallister said.

He said the opposition NDP is fear-mongering to Manitobans when it suggests their children’s teachers are about to be fired.

"It’s always hard to respond to fear," Pallister said.

Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck said Friday morning that public-sector unions still have no clue what’s in the bill.

"We’ve not heard from government since they put these bills on the order paper and received no invitation for a briefing on the legislation," Rebeck said.

Meanwhile, the University of Manitoba revealed Friday that its board of governors has frozen the wages of managers for the fiscal year beginning April 1.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca