Premier Dalton McGuinty is jeopardizing his future and his government’s hope of re-election with his failure to hold the line on public sector wages.

Ostensibly, Ontario’s 1.06 million public employees are under a two-year freeze. But as the end of the Liberal mandate approaches, they are reaping wage gains that offend taxpayers and defy government policy.

Last week, the Ontario Provincial Police won a 13.5 per cent wage increase over four years. McGuinty defended the contract, arguing the OPP had to stay competitive with other police forces.

Barely had taxpayers absorbed that news when the Star reported that eHealth Ontario — the same agency that made headlines two years ago with its lavish executive perks and hefty consultants’ fees — was doling out bonuses worth an average of 7.8 per cent to hundreds of its employees.

Health Minister Deb Matthews, showing more spunk than her boss, called eHealth president Greg Reed on the carpet and told to him to rethink the ill-considered payouts. Within 24 hours, he cancelled them.

In early May, the Liberals quietly “adjusted” their collective agreement with the province’s largest public sector union, giving its members a 3 per cent wage increase next year. Speaking for Government Services Minister Harinder Takhar, an aide insisted it was a good deal for taxpayers.

Across the province, school boards are giving their non-union employees — principals, superintendents and managers — above-inflationary pay raises, claiming administrators don’t fall under the freeze.

Whenever McGuinty acquiesces to one of these settlements, he hands Conservative Leader Tim Hudak another piece of ammunition. He knows his political rival plans to campaign against his spending record. He knows Ontarians resent paying for public sector wage hikes when they’re tightening their own belts. And he knows Ontario has a $16.7 billion deficit. Yet he can’t — or won’t — make his wage freeze stick.

It is true, as eHealth officials pointed out, that the freeze doesn’t cover bonuses. It is correct, as the OPP maintained, that its contract does not violate government policy because the big payout — 8.5 per cent — comes in 2014. And a case can be made, as Finance Minister Dwight Duncan did, that OPSEU (the Ontario Public Service Employees Union) merely swapped non-monetary benefits for cash.

But these technicalities are lost on voters. What they see is a succession of public sector pay hikes that makes a mockery of the premier’s directive.

McGuinty may succeed in buying himself labour peace until the Oct. 6 election. But he is paying a high price — with taxpayers’ money. This is not smart politics or strong leadership.

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