Chris Savard

December 15, 2006:

Since my last column a couple of weeks ago, we have all read and heard about the scathing Auditor General’s report on the McGuinty Liberal mismanagement and broken promises that continue to hurt Ontarians.

Some of the most outrageous examples of the McGuinty mismanagement include:

• Rampant misspending at some Children’s Aid Societies and a complete lack of oversight about how taxpayers dollars are being spent. Tax dollars went to expensive SUV;s, trips and expensive restaurants instead of helping children. The McGuinty Government ignored reports for long periods of time.
• Patients, including children, being exposed to higher radiation levels than necessary in hospitals and CT scanners being used without proper training and safety controls.
• Wait times being calculated in what the Auditor General described as a “misleading” way. Dalton McGuinty promised to reduce wait times and his government has continually assured Ontarians wait time numbers are up to date and accurate.
• Millions in misspending by public employees, such as $163 million in goods and services purchased by Hydro One staff using corporate credit cards and one case where an executive spent $50,000 on personal items.
• Some OPG employees having corporate credit cards with limits that are over $200,000 per month
• In 2005, $61 million was spent on three types of corporate credit cards, including $6.5 million spent on purchasing cards that was paid without any receipts whatsoever.

In the days that followed the release of the Auditor General’s report, Hydro One CEO Tom Parkinson “resigned in light of the circumstances.” This week, PC Party Leader John Tory pressed Dalton McGuinty in the Legislature to explain how Mr. Parkinson could receive a $3 million payout, however no explanation was provided.

Mr. Tory was quoted as saying, “In Dalton McGuinty’s world someone can leave under a cloud and get rewarded with a $3 million payout. That’s an idea that just doesn’t make sense to most Ontarians. In the real world if somebody quits their job under a cloud and leaves the organization, they quit. They don’t get a payout. They don’t get a $3 million handshake.”

While it is clear that the Auditor General has found systemic misspending throughout the government, the McGuinty Liberals have not acted to fix the lack of respect for Ontarian’s tax dollars. The Premier’s refusal to spell out specific actions he intends to take to finally show some respect for taxpayers’ money is weak leadership and lack of accountability at its worst.

The PC Caucus has recently launched a campaign to identify and stop McGuinty government waste. In my last article, I wrote about how Ontarians can log on to www.wastebusters.ca to send in examples of how taxpayer’s money isn’t helping the people it should be.

chris@chrissavard.ca

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