WATERLOO—Premier Dalton McGuinty says his wage freeze crusade is setting civil servants as the next target.

“I’m making it clear, we’re coming,” he told reporters Friday while campaigning in next Thursday’s crucial by-election.

Once the minority Liberal government passes its controversial legislation to impose contracts on teachers and ban strikes for two years and gets doctors “back to the table” for negotiations, efforts will centre on the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and an association representing managers and professionals in the civil service, McGuinty said.

“We don’t have any money for pay hikes,” he added on the shaded back deck of a lawyer’s house in a leafy suburb near Conestoga Mall, noting negotiations are underway with OPSEU and the Association of Management, Administrative and Professional Crown Employees of Ontario (AMAPCEO).

“We may come to a point in time when we can’t resolve that through negotiation. I understand that.”

That’s when those workers could face the weight of legislation now hitting teachers — but only after meeting the Supreme Court of Canada’s test of collective bargaining first in attempts to reach a settlement, he added.

He took a shot at Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak for pushing an across-the-board wage freeze for all workers in the broader public sector, saying such a move could run into court challenges — now underway from doctors and threatened by public school teacher unions — unless talks are held first.

But with a $14.8-billion deficit and credit-rating agencies concerned about Ontario’s finances, Tory MPP Michael Harris (Kitchener-Conestoga) said securing wage freezes with groups on a one-by-one basis will take too long.

“This is a wage freeze on training wheels,” he charged.

At Queen’s Park, New Democrat MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth) said the premier is continuing his anti-labour sabre-rattling in hopes of wooing voters in the by-elections set for Kitchener-Waterloo and Vaughan.

If the Liberals hold Vaughan and gain Kitchener-Waterloo from the Tories, McGuinty would have a de facto majority in the 107-member legislature.

“We have a premier bent on a majority who continues on a cynical, reckless course or confrontation,” Tabuns told reporters.

All parties acknowledged Kitchener-Waterloo is a tight, three-way race.

The management association of civil servants, representing 12,000 staff, said it was “very concerned” about McGuinty’s thinly veiled threat which comes as the clock ticks down to a Sept. 9 deadline the government set for a deal.

“While the premier says he wants a wage freeze, in reality the government of Ontario’s negotiators have demanded an additional two to three per cent cut,” AMAPCEO said in a statement, insisting it has agreed to a freeze and other cost-saving measures.

“We need the government of Ontario’s negotiators to make the same commitment to reach a negotiated settlement.”

The association is planning a noon-hour rally on the front lawn of the legislature next Wednesday — the same place where about 5,000 teachers and education support workers gathered to protest earlier this week.

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The teacher bill could go to a final vote as early as Sept. 10. Hudak has vowed his party will support it even though it is “half a loaf.”

Aside from a wage freeze, the bill would impose three unpaid days off on teachers in exchange for allowing younger teachers to move up through the existing salary grid as they gain experience and halve their annual sick day entitlement to 10. Unused days could no longer be banked and cashed out at retirement.

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