Province blasted for ‘secret’ wage hikes

The McGuinty-led Liberal government is coming under fire for secretly awarding civil servants a pay hike for next year.

Tory MPP John O'Toole says documents detailing the pay hike proves that talk of a public sector wage freeze was a "phoney'' public relations stunt by the province.

The recently disclosed documents show the government awarded nearly 34,000 civil servants an additional wage increase of one per cent for 2012.

The deal guarantees labour peace with the union until after the October provincial election.

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan insists the deal wasn't secret and has saved taxpayers money.

A spokesman for the finance minister told the Toronto Star Thursday that the government signed the four-year deal with OPSEU in December 2008, during the global economic downturn. That was less than the three per cent the union was seeking.