The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is praising Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s proposed two-year wage freeze for teachers as well as his proposal to eliminate the practice of awarding teachers up to $46,000 when they retire in exchange for not using all their sick leave.
Calling the proposal “long overdue” the federation’s Ontario director Gregory Thomas said the wage freeze is the bare minimum the Liberals must do if the province is to have any hope of balancing the budget.
“Premier McGuinty is finally doing the right thing. Ontario is borrowing more money than the rest of Canada’s provinces put together and paying some of the highest teacher wages in the country at the same time. Ontario needs to at least freeze teacher wages to bring them closer into line with teachers in other provinces and with what other people are earning who don’t work for the government.”
Experienced Ontario high school teachers are paid $94,642 a year. A teacher in Toronto earns $13,000 more than a teacher in Vancouver and $22,000 more than a teacher in Quebec.
“A lot of the blame for the B.C. teachers strike goes to the Ontario government for paying inflated teacher wages with billions of dollars of borrowed money,” said the federation’s British Columbia director Jordan Bateman.
Thomas said teachers do not need 20 sick days when they actually teach fewer than 200 days in a year. He characterized as “generous” the government’s proposal to offer full pay for the first six days of sick time, and 66 per cent pay for 24 weeks.
“It’s time teachers stopped abusing the sick day system, treating sick leave as just another gift from the taxpayer,” said Thomas.
Sick leave for teachers is expected to cost Ontario taxpayers $137 million in 2012-13 and Ontario taxpayers are on the hook for $1.7 billion in unused sick leave, to be paid out to teachers when they cash in “unused” sick days at the end of their careers.
“Teachers unions say they support quality education,” said Thomas. “By freezing teacher wages and reforming sick leave, Premier McGuinty is trying to find money to pay for lower class sizes and full-day kindergarten. It’s time for teachers to put their money – their six-figure compensation packages – where their mouth is, and show that they really care about education and working families.”
