Auditor Says Liberals’ Reopening of Teachers’ Contract Cost $468M

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Auditor general, Bonnie Lysyk, has revealed in a recent report that Premier Kathleen Wynne’s decision to reopen teacher contracts and soften a wage-freeze bill imposed by her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, cost taxpayers almost $468 million. Unveiling the long-awaited special report into the 2012 legislation that Wynne repealed and renegotiated after taking power last year, Lysyk stated that “that is the total for the additional cost.”

According to Progressive Conservative MPP, Lisa MacLeod, the lost savings come off the $2.4 billion originally estimated by the Liberals in shape of new deals with several unions for “benefits, salaries and wages . . . something I view as taken directly out of the classrooms.” She criticized the Liberals for keeping the extra costs secret after negotiations were reached. She alleged that “the government wasn’t honest and it wasn’t truthful,” adding that teachers had deserted their traditional Liberal allies in droves after the wage-freeze bill was passed. She said that “Kathleen Wynne wanted to consolidate a voting bloc of hers before an election.”

Meanwhile, Education Minister Liz Sandals ducked reporters upon inquiry regarding the $468 million in foregone savings as the government tries to eliminate a $12.5 billion deficit. In reference to Lysyk’s finding that the Liberal government was “reasonable” in its estimates of cost savings for the bill covering the two-year period from 2012 to 2014, she said that “I think that’s a very odd question . . . I think it is a good news story.” Sandals alleged that “all our calculations were reasonable given the information we had at the time.”

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