Ontario has to pay more than $6 billion to public sector workers due to the government's wage restraint law being ruled unconstitutional.
Bill 124 limited salary increases for public sector workers to one percent annually for three years, but it was deemed unconstitutional by the Ontario Court of Appeal and subsequently repealed by the government.
Since a lower court first declared the law unconstitutional in 2022, unions with reopener clauses in their contracts have been seeking retroactive pay increases above one percent annually, and in most cases, they have been granted significantly larger amounts.
Officials not authorized to speak publicly about the costs have confirmed to The Canadian Press that the awarded amounts total $6,000,800,000 so far.
A report by the province's financial accountability officer earlier this month emphasized that compensation for Bill 124 caused the government to spend billions more than planned, particularly in the health and education sectors.
The disclosure of the cost of the reopener payments comes as Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy is preparing to present next year's budget in less than two weeks.
In the minister's latest fiscal update ahead of the budget, it was projected that Ontario would end the year with a $4.5 billion deficit, which is larger than the $1.3 billion forecasted in last year's spring budget.
To mitigate some of the increased compensation costs, the province has utilized a large contingency fund highlighted by the FAO, leaving $3.3 billion in the fund at the time of the third-quarter finances report.
The FAO has warned that the pay increases for public sector workers due to Bill 124 could ultimately cost the government more than $13 billion.
Since the law was initially declared unconstitutional by a lower court, various groups of public employees, including teachers, nurses, hospital workers, public servants, Public Health Ontario employees, ORNGE air ambulance paramedics, and college faculty, have been awarded additional retroactive pay by arbitrators.
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario employees are among the most recent to receive back pay. They were awarded an additional 6.5 percent over the three years of their last contract, as announced by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union this week.
