The Dalton McGuinty government will unveil legislation Wednesday to implement its planned two-year wage freeze for the broader public sector.

It will apparently fall short of PC Leader Tim Hudak's call for an across-the-board wage freeze bill.

"The Ontario Liberal approach is to confront the current fiscal challenges facing Ontario while balancing our respect for collective agreements," Aly Vitunski, a spokesman for Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, said in an e-mail Tuesday. "Hudak's PCs would take an unconstitutional road forward while Horwath's NDP would choose to do nothing, except raise taxes to pay for higher wage settlements."

It's unclear whether the Liberals will be able to proceed with their legislation because the House is currently busy debating a contempt motion against Energy Minister Chris Bentley over the release of documents related to two cancelled gas plants.

Duncan's staff is holding a morning technical briefing for media to explain the bill.

The Liberal bill may provoke a strong reaction from labour.
The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) was already planning to bring together union leaders Wednesday "to draft province-wide plans to challenge Premier Dalton McGuinty's recent attack on the Charter rights of workers," an OFL news release says.

"After tabling the constitutionally disputed Bill 115 to eliminate the collective bargaining rights of Ontario teachers and educational support staff, Premier McGuinty has openly mused about extending his Draconian legislation to strip the democratic rights of all of the province's 1.3 million public sector workers," the release says.

The McGuinty government has reached deals for two-year pay freezes and other concessions with some public sector unions and associations, but contracts with the majority of teachers and Ontario Public Service workers have not been inked.