Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien has mused about wage freezes for the City of Ottawa to deal with rising costs. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Mayoral candidates Jim Watson and Alex Cullen say Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien is acting irresponsibly in openly discussing wide-ranging wage freezes before sitting down with workers and labour unions.

O'Brien has suggested the city follow the lead of the provincial government and freeze wages for non-unionized municipal workers, including councillors and management, for two years.

O'Brien also took it a step further, saying the city should consider expanding the freeze to cover unionized workers in the police and fire departments.

"It is about time to look at wage rollback and/or a solid legislated wage freeze right across the board with everybody," said O'Brien, including police and fire department workers.

But former mayor and current mayoral candidate Jim Watson said O'Brien is playing a dangerous game in negotiating new labour agreements through the media.

"You can't simply have the mayor, who is the head of council, go off and pour more oil on the fire," said Watson. "The whole purpose of labour negotiations is to get an agreement at a reasonable compensation rate, and make sure services aren't disrupted for taxpayers."

Bay Ward councillor and mayoral candidate Alex Cullen also warned that the mayor is risking another strike, like the one that brought OC Transpo to a halt a year ago.

Police union calls comments 'disappointing'

Police services members also seemed taken aback by the tough talk.

Police chief Vern White, speaking at Monday night's police services board meeting, said the topic of wages freezes has never come up.

"I haven't had that discussion, not for one second, with my board," said White.

Police Association president Steve Boucher also called O'Brien's comments "disappointing" and said his union would not agree to a legislated wage freeze.

O'Brien's made his comments after Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's government tabled legislation that will freeze wages for some 350,000 non-unionized workers in the broader public sector for the next two years.

College Ward Coun. Rick Chiarelli has since said he plans to table a motion in April to enact a similar measure for Ottawa workers.