PUBLIC ARE FED UP WITH PUBLIC SECTOR PAY RATES

Whether it's teachers, city workers, police, provincial or federal employees; the public have had quite enough. The calibre and quality of each of these groups merely reflects the calibre and quality of private sector employees. Some are good, some are great and unfortunately some are unreliable, lazy bums. One of the big differences however is the difficulty in getting rid of the bad apples in public sector circles. The other difference is that rarely if ever do public service employees get laid off. At one time this was all reflected in the modest wages of public servants. Those days have been gone for decades. Now it's top notch wages, top notch benefits and top notch pensions for public employees. This is all at a time when private sector employees are losing both benefits and decent pensions . Wages have also stagnated.

Today's Waterloo Region Record has this story "Police wages rise 86 per cent early in career". Now if they were making minimum wage to start that wouldn't be so shocking. Instead they are starting at $44,000 per annum and within three to five years at $82,000 as a first class constable in Waterloo Region. This week our regional government approved a $135 million police budget. 85% of that is for wages and benefits. Regional Councillor Tom Galloway "...acknowledged that the police budget is a challenge. "We can't sustain it on a forever basis,".".