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It says the union wants 15.75 per cent, while BCGEU President Paul Finch has previously said it was seeking a 4 per cent wage increase in the first year and 4.25 per cent in the second year, plus unspecified allowances.

The ministry says the BCGEU's 8.25 per cent wage request "only tells part of the story" and it estimates the full cost of the union's proposals at more than $200 million in "additional compensation increases."

It puts the ongoing annual cost of the BCGEU's wage and other compensation proposals at $437 million.

The announcement came as Finch laid out a new phase of the public service strike that was launched last week, targetting "core government services" in 11 cities on Tuesday and Wednesday, but not liquor or cannabis distribution sites.

The new picket sites include a range of regional government offices and service locations in cities including Kamloops, Kelowna, Nelson and Prince George.

"We will not be targeting the liquor distribution centres despite some creative reports over the weekend. That's not on the list of notice of sites that we've given at this time," Finch said on Monday at a picket site in Surrey.

He said the union was "not going to broadcast our strike strategy going forward," but when asked if liquor sites might be hit in future he said "everything is on the table."

The union represents more than 34,000 members working for B.C.'s public service and has already held pickets in Vancouver, Victoria, Surrey, and Prince George, and the Royal BC Museum.

It says some of its key asks include competitive wages and fair access to telework.

The government statement on its offer was issued just ahead of Finch's remarks.

The statement says the 2022 contract plus the BCGEU's current request would amount to a 30 per cent compensation increase over five years, while the government's proposed 18.75 per cent increase slightly exceeds projected inflation of 18.7 per cent in the same period.

It said the union's 2025 proposals for the next two years total 15.75 per cent, "or 3.25 times higher than the estimated 4.8 per cent inflation rate over the same two-year period."

"The ongoing cost of the BCGEU's 15.75 per cent compensation proposals is estimated at $437 million," it said.

"To put that in perspective, if the rest of the unionized public sector in B.C. received the same increases, it would represent an annual ongoing cost to provincial taxpayers of $6.6 billion."

Finch said that suggesting that the union request was three times inflation amounted to "creative math" by the government.

"What's happened is that what they've done is they've costed the menu, not the meal, for non-general wage increase items," he said, adding that details included in the government costings were part of the "menu of options." 

Premier David Eby has said the government's goal is to reach a deal that's both fair to unionized workers and fair to taxpayers.

Negotiations for a new contract broke off in July.

This report by °µÍø½ûÇø was first published Sept. 8, 2025