WATERLOO, ON -- Premier Dalton McGuinty is looking for advice on the dispute with teachers and wonders why the opposition is shy in giving it to him.

"I'm looking forward to hearing from the other parties," McGuinty said Friday after touring his fifth school in the past two weeks.

"I hope that at some point in time they'll pick up the phone and give me a call. I'm not sure why they are sitting on their hands."

Opposition parties were complaining just Thursday that the Liberal government hasn't given them any heads up on what a threatened bill imposing a wage deal on teachers might look like.

"He's the government," Progressive Conservative MPP Mike Harris said. "He should be reaching out to (PC Leader) Tim (Hudak) and our party."

McGuinty said he would not get into any specifics of a proposed bill, but repeated it would be based on the deal English Catholic teachers have signed and would be introduced if an agreement can't be reached before Sept. 1.

The premier also declined to say whether any bill would be deemed a confidence matter, meaning opposition parties would force a general election if they voted it down.

The so-called road map deal McGuinty would like to see all teachers in the province agree to freezes wages for two years and partially freezes the salary grid, although younger teachers are still allowed some upward movement.

The agreement also does away with banked sick days and forces teachers to work three unpaid professional development days.

Restricting salary grid movement is a particular sticking point, as the outstanding teacher unions have argued those are wage increases won in previous negotiations.

McGuinty has said he's still hopeful direct talks between unions and school boards could come up with a deal that meets the government's deficit fighting targets before the deadline, but Linda Fabi, with the Waterloo Region Public School Board, wasn't optimistic.

"It's unlikely it will happen." Fabi said, adding her board's chief financial officer is on vacation and hasn't even analyzed the road map deal yet

Catherine Fife, the NDP candidate in the Sept. 6 Kitchener-Waterloo byelection, said the English Catholic teachers deal "does not meet the needs" of students, teachers or parents. The wage fight with teachers, who have strongly supported the Liberals through the past three elections, is dominating the K-W byelection campaign so far.

Running for the PCs in the race is former RIM exec Tracy Weiler, while the Liberals nominated former candidate Eric Davis Thursday night.