Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan will meet with union leaders on Tuesday to discuss a wage freeze. (Canadian Press)

Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan's push to freeze the wages of over a million public employees could be politically advantageous to the Liberal government, says a former Conservative finance minister.

Duncan is expected to speak to union leaders later Tuesday about possibly instituting a wage freeze for some 700,000 unionized government workers and 350,000 managers.

Union groups have said they will not accept any such measures, setting the stage for what looks to be a contentious debate over compensation for public sector employees.

But Janet Ecker, finance minister in the government of former Tory Premier Ernie Eves, said the current government is likely to have support from the public in its bid to keep public wages down.

"The government, I think, has great political room to move here. Because for most people in Ontario, they've been watching their jobs completely disappear," she told CBC's Metro Morning on Tuesday.

"They would love to have a job with the kind of benefits and pensions that many of the public sector workers receive. And I don't think they think it is unfair for the government to say, 'We want to protect the jobs, we want to protect the services, we just want to hold down the wages.'"

The province is faced with $21-billion deficit. In March's budget, Duncan said he expected that other public-service workers — teachers and nurses among them — would face wage freezes when their agreements expire. The civil service workers appear to be the latest target.

Union leaders have attacked the government's move, saying the budget shortfall was caused by the economic downturn, not public service labour costs.

Hudak unimpressed

The Liberal government isn't the first to try to take on public sector compensation, noted Ecker, referencing moves by former Conservative premier Bill Davis, and former NDP premier Bob Rae, both of whom tried to curb labour costs.

"All three parties have wrestled with this. This is not an ideologically driven attack, it is a statement of reality of provincial finances in this province," she said.

In the 1990s, Rae instituted what would be famously known as "Rae days," in which civil service workers were asked to take days off without pay.

Rae said trying to tamp down rising wages in the public sector is "always controversial."

"A very big chunk of what the provincial government spends money on is salaries for about a million people," he said.

"So if you're going to try to reduce public expenditure without dramatically disrupting services, you simply have to look at the wage issue as part of a bigger package."

The Liberal government estimates it could save $750 million by next year if the wage freeze comes into effect.

Current Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said that while he thinks the government is right in demanding a wage freeze, he is skeptical about whether it can actually succeed in cutting labour costs.

"I'm just not convinced that the McGuinty government that has spent our way into this mess, that has dramatically increased the size and costs of the government, really sincerely will try to get those costs down," he said.