Protestors paddled to Doug Ford’s cottage in kayaks
The group of OPSEU members made their way to the premier’s Muskoka shoreline to demand a retroactive wage increase following the repeal of Bill 124
Premier Doug Ford’s cottage received a visit around the Canada Day holiday—it wasn’t the prime minister returning for more deep fireside conversation late into the night, but a group of Ontario Public Service Employees Union members who paddled their way to the shoreline in kayaks, protesting Bill 124.
“Today, Local 358 joined fellow OPSEU/SEFPO locals to paddle to Doug Ford’s cottage with one clear message: we aren’t going away. We won’t stop until public services are properly funded and workers receive a full Bill 124 remedy,” said an Instagram post on behalf of the chapter representing developmental service workers in the Haliburton, Peterborough and Lindsay areas.
Bill 124, the Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, was passed by the legislature in 2019, only to later be ruled unconstitutional by the Ontario Superior Court and repealed. The legislation capped public sector salary increases at one per cent per year for a three-year period, which the Ford government framed as “reflecting the fiscal situation of the province” to “protect the sustainability of public services.”
A March 2026 statement on the union’s website said 40,000 members were still awaiting a retroactive wage increase following the repeal. Workers awaiting payment are from sectors including Children’s Aid, Mental Health and Addictions and Community Health Care Professionals.
Around 4,000 Ontario community and social services workers are currently strike, with Bill 124 cited as one of their concerns.
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
