Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday that the federal government’s offer to striking public sector workers is a fair one that wouldn’t burden the treasury with unnecessarily high wage costs at a time of economic uncertainty.
Speaking to reporters at a nuclear power plant in Pickering, Ont., Freeland said the federal government has to remember the “hardworking people of Canada” who pay public sector wages.
Echoing Treasury Board President Mona Fortier, who has said Ottawa won’t write a “blank cheque” to cover big increases in public servant pay, Freeland said there’s only a finite amount of money to go around and Ottawa needs