I have a vision of a great Ontario. It's a leader in better quality health care treatment for patients, higher test scores for students and shorter commutes for drivers and transit riders alike.
But today, all these things are at risk. Ontario is in a deep fiscal hole. Without urgent action, we're staring at a $30 billion deficit and a $411 billion debt in just a couple of years. So if we really care about a stronger Ontario we've also got to care about our public debt -- and then do something about it. No more throwing money we don't have at things we don't need, and at every problem that moves. Because the money's run out.
It's time for government to return to balanced budgets, re-focus on its basic responsibilities, and exit the distracting and unnecessary business of being in business: things like designing and selling lottery tickets and putting wine bottles on shelves. Honestly, what's more important: Designer lighting in swanky liquor stores and roulette wheels for shiny new casinos -- or more MRI scans and cancer-beating drugs on the formulary?
This is where the sixth in our Paths to Prosperity discussion papers comes in. It's called "A New Deal for the Public Sector." A New Deal rejects the premise that government success is measured by its number of employees, the amount of money it spends, the number of programs it delivers or the stores and businesses it owns. That's the old way of thinking, and it's helped get Ontario into the mess we're in today.
The problem isn't our civil servants. It's a political leadership that has no vision for government -- other than to make it bigger. By contrast, A New Deal serves as a framework for a leaner government that delivers better priority services for less money, and creates a new culture of customer service. It does so by giving our public servants the specific objectives, measurements and incentives they'll need to help us achieve it.
We'll measure productivity, just like the private sector. Once our planned across-the-board two-year wage freeze is over, we'll reward public servants who deliver superior outcomes through a tightly-managed system of performance pay. We will recognize hard work when it's earned by producing measurable results.
Those who don't perform will no longer be on the government payroll -- again, just like the private sector. We'll end compulsory union membership for people like managers, program supervisors and senior policy advisors, and allow them to bargain individually for their compensation if they choose. And we'll ensure all Ontarians can apply for government job openings, not only those already on the government payroll.
By laying out these goals, expectations and incentives, an Ontario PC government will bring the size and cost of the public sector back into line with our ability to pay. We'll create a more innovative public service that's answerable to taxpayers for the money it spends. The result will be a government that can once again safeguard the things Ontarians truly care about.
But more than that, A New Deal is founded on the simple idea that tough choices are always the right choices. The problem with spending beyond our means is it cuts off our capacity to pay for the things we care about. This is the great irony of those who will oppose the difficult decisions and bold ideas of my leadership. The current government, for example, talks about the need for compassion. But their reckless overspending has robbed us of the ability to be compassionate in the first place.
Compassion is something you are able to do, not just promise. It's an act of love to help those in need, not an excuse for inaction. A New Deal for the Public Sector is a summons to principled action, for an Ontario that can lead Canada again in job creation, quality of life and value for taxpayers' money.
"For the police and financial investigators, the difficulty will be sorting through ORNGE’s two streams of revenue — the $275 million in private financing and the $150 million in annual public funding. Then investigators need to determine where the millions went. Insiders say they are probing the expense accounts of Mazza and other executives, as well as looking into $1.2 million in no-interest loans and a cash advance to Mazza...
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http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/mazzas-dreams-for-air-ambulance-service-lie-in-tatters/article4171468/?service=mobile
Mr. Blum, who was instrumental in the creation of Ornge, left in July, 2008, because he said the plan that he crafted, one that former health minister George Smitherman signed off on, was to have Ornge generate revenues by exporting the intellectual property to other jurisdictions and put all of that money back into the front-line air ambulance service.
“Never did I think the sound vision of Ornge would go off the rails,” Mr. Blum said....It was Mr. Blum who introduced Dr. Mazza to Mr. Smitherman shortly after the Liberals took office in 2003. The McGuinty government wanted to create a new entity responsible for all aspects of the provincial air ambulance service, including managing contracts with private-sector air carriers to supply helicopters and planes.
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ornge-settles-lawsuit-with-ex-employee-allegedly-fired-for-whistleblowing/article6212722/?service=mobile
"Ornge, a stand-alone, non-profit, charitable organization, was appointed in July 2005 by the province of Ontario Ministry of Health to co-ordinate all aspects of Ontario's transport medicine system, and began operations January 2006."
History of Ornge:
Established in 1977, Ontario was the first Canadian province to provide a helicopter-based aero-medical system to transport critically ill patients from on scene to hospital. That same year, the Ministry of Health developed and implemented a training system for flight paramedics who performed advanced life support and controlled medical acts during air transport.
In 2004, Ornge was incorporated under the name "Ontario Air Ambulance Services Co."
In July 2005 the Government of Ontario announced the appointment of Ontario Air Ambulance Services Corporation as the sole provider of Ontario's air ambulance services.
The organization changed its name to Ornge in 2006.
In January 2012, a new, volunteer Board of Directors was appointed and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care appointed a new Interim President and CEO, Ron McKerlie to lead Ornge.
http://www.ornge.ca/Media/Pages/FrequentlyAskedQuestions.aspx
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/unanswered-emergency-call-the-latest-blow-to-battered-ornge/article4105853/
http://www.aizan.com/prtnr_announcement_9.html
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1114052--ornge-air-ambulance-service-now-run-by-ontario-deputy-minister
So for all of Tim Hudak's accusations against Dalton McGuinty and his involvement with this mess, looks like the federal Conservatives are not so squeaky clean either. What will Timmy's campaign slogan be now.
'Vote for us. We're not as crooked as the Harper government. Honest!'
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/health-canada-slammed-in-ehealth-audit/article1208858/
related:
http://pushedleft.blogspot.ca/2009/11/enron-john-and-why-john-bairds.html
http://www.polarisinstitute.org/files/Accenture.pdf
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http://www.ecareview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3032:need-for-full-expense-audit&catid=1:article&Itemid=8
"According to information obtained through a freedom of information request, Lynn Redford, as the Government Relations Adviser for the Calgary Health Region, repeatedly expensed PC party fundraisers and other items related to partisan political events between 2005 and 2008. Redford expensed four $75-tickets to a Calgary-Elbow PC association fundraiser in 2005, $200 for registration to the 2005 PC AGM, $100 for a fundraiser in support of Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill MLA Neil Brown and a $40 donation to the Liberal Party of Canada at a breakfast with former Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh.
One particular receipt to Redford from the PC party came with a note back to Redford saying “Please let us know to whom the tax receipt should go.” Under Section 34 of the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosures Act, tax receipts must be issued to the name under which the contribution was made."
Alvin Finkel posted:
"I give a lot of credit to the CBC’s Charles Rusnall for exposing Merali and Weatherill. This time at least the other media picked up on the story which was not the case when CBC exposed the university and college presidents and boards for funneling money to the PC Party
http://daveberta.ca/2012/08/allaudin-merali-alberta-health/
check the references listed in blue ...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/pdf/ehealthont-d10.pdf
( note: the consultant is from Alberta... https://pipl.com/directory/name/Merali/200/)
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/08/06/alberta-health-official-who-billed-for-mercedes-repair-wont-get-severance/
http://albertadiary.ca/tag/allaudin-merali
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2009/05/31/9630076-sun.html
http://beaconnews.ca/blog/2012/12/alberta-health-services-to-post-executive-expense-claim-information/
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/08/03/kelly-mcparland-alberta-expenses-uproar-shows-how-governments-vaporize-health-budgets/
"Obviously this is not the case in Alberta alone, since Merali was able to move on to Ontario and get just as sweet a deal. Note that no one is saying any of this was in any way illegal: it was, in fact, considered perfectly acceptable by Merali’s bosses, until the public found out. And then the excuses began. If the CBC hadn’t assembled the facts this week, there’s no reason to expect anyone in the Alberta government would be any the wiser today than they were a week ago. The scandal is that, in government, this is business as usual."
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http://www.canada.com/business/all/Highlights+Ontario+Auditor+General+McCarters+2012+annual+report/7688402/story.html
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http://pushedleft.blogspot.ca/2011/09/another-word-tim-hudak-should-avoid-on.html
National Post article. We can't leave his wife out of it, because she was the centre point of the exposé .
New documents show Hydro One paid more than $400,000 to the consultancy run by former Conservative campaign co-chair Jaime Watt, as the list of Ontario Tories who received lucrative contracts from the utility continues to expand .... Documents obtained by CanWest News Service through freedom of information legislation show Navigator's bills, worth a total of $400,374 between October, 2001, and October, 2003, were for services that included company surveys, strategic counsel and communications planning.
In August, 2002, the utility paid $64,200 for an annual subscription to Current Opinion, Navigator's syndicated study of public opinion on electricity issues. Almost all of Navgator's bills were directed to the attention of Deb Hutton, a senior advisor to both Mr. Eves and his predecessor, Mike Harris. For most of the period in question, Ms. Hutton was Hydro One's vice-president of corporate relations.
The Navigator deals bring the latest total for contracts awarded to senior Tories by the power distribution company to $6-million.
It's a case of deja vu all over again, as Harper's reunion tour has the same old material. We've just been waiting for the show promised two years ago.
So why wasn't the money allotted in 2007, spent in 2007? A little creative bookkeeping or a political move? Wait to give good news until you're really down in the polls, or did you spend the 2007 money on something else?
These Mike Harris flunkies learned from the best. They told us the books were balanced then, but guess what was hiding under the rug? A six billion dollar deficit.
http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081008.wflaherty1008/BNStory/International/
http://www.ngnews.ca/Politics/2009-05-16/article-314766/Harper-talks-stimulus-with-Ont-infrastructure-plans-critics-say-its-old-money/1
The reason to bother with Mr. Hudak is that he may well be premier one day - if not next time, then the time after that. All governments get long in the tooth, and this one is well into its second term. It is also sailing into a perfect storm not of its own making. If people get mad enough, they'll vote for Donald Duck.
That alone may be enough to get Mr. Hudak elected. But if he's halfway smart, he'll realize that the 5,600 diehards who elected him as leader are the party's past. They are the province's past, too. Ontario's future won't be forged in the aging, fading, small white towns like the one he grew up in. It will be forged in the vibrant knowledge belt of Southern Ontario, and in multiethnic, creative, culturally liberal Toronto.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/tim-hudak-drop-the-harris-bit/article787329/
"The Neoconservative government of Mike Harris did not work well for Ontario. He was eventually forced to resign, amid scandals, and when they left office we were stuck with a six billion dollar deficit, that had been cleverly hidden by Jim Flaherty."
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http://pushedleft.blogspot.ca/2010/06/deceptive-democracy-guy-giorno-and.html
"The bill passed and among the 'ayes' were Jim Flaherty, John Baird and Tony Clement, while those "Whiz Kids" continued to whiz all over Ontario for a few more years. We're still trying to scrub off the stains."
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http://pushedleft.blogspot.ca/2010/07/john-snobelen-kraft-dinner-really-how.html
But since things were going so well before Mike Harris, the government had to find reasons to gut education, and Snobelen was actually caught on tape, suggesting that he could just "invent" some.
Perhaps the clearest evidence of the necessity of a crisis in education, in order to justify overhauling the system, was illustrated by the Ontario Minister of Education and Training. John Snobelen, caught on videotape explaining to the managerial level of the Ministry the need to "create a crisis" to justify the restructuring (some would say dismantling) of public education in Ontario, provided a grim reminder of the beneficiaries behind this scheme, and the subsequent duping of the public to justify it.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=887
And it is a disturbing parallel to what the Harris government did during the lead-up to the 1999 election in Ontario, selling Highway 407 for a fraction of its worth, and using the money received to balance the budget. Not only were Ontarian taxpayers ripped off, receiving very little return for the sale of something they’d spent tens of billions of dollars over the past thirty years investing in, the question of how to balance Ontario’s books had merely been put off rather than addressed. What did Harris and company expect to sell the next year if the ink on the balance books was still red? It is this approach that saddled Ontarians with a surprise $5.6 billion deficit when Eves and Flaherty left office, turfed on their ear by voters who turned to Dalton McGuinty.
Given the track record of some of the Conservative ministers in this government, particularly the Conservative Minister of Finance, Canadians have a right to be concerned that the assets they’ve spent so much of their tax dollars on will simply be let go for fire-sale prices, just so the Conservatives can make a quick buck. This does not serve us well.
The tax payer built the road at a cost of around $1.6billion.
They pay for license information from provinces, which is too expensive except for provinces with high volumes of drivers on the highway. Harris government gave away the sovereignty of the provincial government by allowing a private business the power not to renew driver's licenses if the bills are not paid on time (this provision has survived a Court challenge & owners can chase you down for 15 yrs. with interest of 3%
http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/1999/04/14/407_4_13_99.html
http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/province-sells-highway-407-for-31-billion-us-dollars-156306055.html
http://prudentpress.com/politics/the-highway-407-hijack-how-ontario-became-a-have-not-province-pt-5/#axzz2EyOSZrnn
http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/732884--province-stuck-with-ironclad-hwy-407-deal-minister-says
http://www.thetbwg.org/meetings/200612/kim%20lambert%20-%20407%20lessons%20learned.pdf
http://www.canlii.org/en/on/laws/regu/o-reg-217-99/latest/o-reg-217-99.html
http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_12h08_e.htm
http://www.407etr.com/tolls/rate-chart-2012.html
http://www.highway407east.com/
In short, if the Ontario government can do this to education workers, then it can do it to any worker.
McGuinty has won the support of Progressive Conservative MPPs and their leader, Tim Hudak, to pass this legislation.
McGuinty and Hudak are now teaming up to take away constitutionally protected rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms from education workers in Ontario. It is likely that this legislation will be challenged in the courts. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has already announced that it would seek intervener status in any court action and would support those who would bring such a challenge forward.
http://rabble.ca/news/2012/09/mcguinty-and-hudak-put-all-workers-rights-are-risk
In my 'opinion' unions have become too powerful in the public sector and have contributed an unsustainable financial situation. But if you are targeting one group with too much power then you should also be targeting other groups with too much power, like corporations who use anti competitive business practices to maintain their near monopolies. An example of this would be the telecommunications industry who own the infrastructure and the content. Enforcing anti-competition laws on them would allow more competition in the industry and provide consumers more choice. In turn this will create more competitive salary jobs for the public rather than a concentration of high salary execs at the top of these corporations who rightfully earn these high salaries, but only because they are allowed to operate as near monopolies. If the opinion of the electorate in Ontario is for the Ontario government to reduce it's size then I say you must also allow competition to create, in the mentioned industry and many others, quality jobs for the increase in people that will be looking for jobs in the private sector.