WINNIPEG – The Manitoba government will reveal its plans to control spending and public-sector wages in the spring sitting of the legislature that starts today.
Premier Brian Pallister has been dropping hints in recent months about options that are on the table — wage freezes for government workers, the reopening of collective agreements and job cuts at the management level.
The exact measures will be spelled out in a bill to control public-sector wages, as well as in the budget.
Royce Koop, who teaches political studies at the University of Manitoba, says the Tory government may be talking tougher than it plans to act.
He says so far, Pallister has talked a lot about controlling spending but there has been no severe austerity.
The Tories inherited an 846-million-dollar deficit from the former N-D-P government, and Pallister has promised to balance the books within eight years.
While the government has challenges, Koop says both opposition parties also have their work cut out for them.
The New Democrats and Liberals are under interim leaders until the fall, and have struggled to raise money and pay off campaign
debts.