Education minister seeking teacher pay freeze

(Video updated:) Ontario’s teachers are getting ready for what could be a messy fight with the province when their contracts expire in august.

The cash-strapped Liberal government is going after teachers’ sick days and a salary freeze in order to reduce the $16 billion deficit.

Most teachers in Ontario can bank 20 sick days a year, up to 200 days over their careers, and then get paid a lump sum averaging about $46,000 when they retire. Education minister Laurel Broten says the government is going in a different direction from economist Don Drummond’s recommendations that would also see a 70 percent reduction in non teaching staff, amounting to a cut of 10,000 positions.

Instead, the government’s focusing on teachers’ sick days, which Broten says have left the government with a $1.7 billion liability.

Video: Sharon McCulloch reports: