Strong Action, Strong Leader? Strong Response.

The following is an edited version of Premier McGuinty's letter to Ontarians.  My comments in italics.

Read the original letter here.

This is quite a place, our Ontario. (almost 8% unemployment, discriminatory schools, lack of social housing, worst gridlock in North America).

We are, all of us, blessed to live in the greatest province in the best country in the world (just don’t tell the Americans, the unemployed or those trying to live on $599 per month).

Our public schools now rank the best in the English-speaking world.

Our hospitals now have the shortest surgical wait times in the country. (Hopefully, you won’t be wanting any drugs with your surgery).

Even our economy, in the midst of a punishing global recession, has created nearly half the new jobs in Canada, and more new jobs than any of our neighbouring (Unemployment: Why Canada is trailing the U.S. on jobs. March 9, 2012: The Star. ) states.

These things didn't happen by accident. We didn't get lucky. No shit, Sherlock!

Working together, we made our publicly funded Catholic schools and our hospitals better (e-health. [1B Waste] and ORNGE ), and our economy stronger (Samsung thanks you).

But now, years of Liberal government over-spending, the recession and continued global economic uncertainty have left us with a problem: a stubborn deficit that threatens economic growth and job creation, and puts our publicly funded Catholic schools, our health care, and our very quality of life (a luxurious $599 per month for Ontario Works recipients) at risk.

We can't allow this deficit created by Dalton McGuinty and the Liberals to defeat us. And we won't.

Our strong plan will eliminate the deficit by Ontario's and Canada's 150th anniversary, on July 1, 2017. (Unless there is a 1 point increase in interest rates, among many other variables).

It won't be pretty. It won't be easy. But we will succeed.

We'll make difficult decisions and tough choices.

Sacrifices will be made. But not on the backs of the top paid CEO’s who will still get their bonuses.

But then who among us didn't grow up hearing of the hardships and sacrifices our parents and grandparents made to create a better life for us. (I recall my Mom telling me how people could walk out of high school and into a factory or office and get a job in the 60’s. As for my grandparents, we’ve all heard stories of how the economy was booming after WWII).

Well, now it's our turn. Time for our generation to stand up and take action.
We will do whatever it takes to protect the gains we've made in our publicly funded Catholic schools and our “health care” that treats illness, instead of focusing on prevention.

We'll do whatever we need to do to preserve what is so very special about this place. Special treatment for the top paid CEO’s, putting the onus of economic recovery on the backs of our poorest citizens and allowing discrimination to continue against students and teachers, in our schools and 7.4% unemployment (Compared with 12 months earlier, employment was up by 121,000. )

And we'll do it together. (Unless your a non-catholic teacher) Because that's the way we do things around here.

Together. We can do this. We're Ontario.

Dalton McGuinty

Premier of Ontario


and

Mark Daye
Citizen of Ontario

Auditor General Ehealth Report

The McGuinty government has WASTED ONE BILLION DOLLARS of our money.
What are you going to do about it? Click the post title to see the auditor general's report.
Here's a couple of highlights copied directly from the auditors press release:
1. Of the $1 billion spent so far on the EHR initiative, $800 million was spent by the SSHA primarily to build a computer network for health-care providers that is expensive to operate and significantly underutilized, mainly because of a dearth of available applications. 

Specifically, it is costing $72 million annually to operate the network; and, on average, users are utilizing less than 1% of the network’s available bandwidth (or system capacity), with peak usage averaging only about 16% of available bandwidth. 

2. Allegations earlier this year that eHealth Ontario awarded contracts to certain companies without giving other firms a chance to compete were “largely true,” as were allegations of “favouritism” in the awarding of such contracts. For example, one firm that bid 500% more than the next qualified bidder was invited to bid again, the only company offered such an opportunity, and, after lowering its bid significantly, won the contract. Another firm that was awarded untendered contracts on the first phase of several projects was awarded many subsequent contracts worth about $7 million to work on successive phases of those projects. 

I am disgusted by this and will be urging the opposition leaders to hammer McGuinty in the legislature. He has a majority government so there's not much we can do until the election in a couple of years.

Health Minister Caplan quits

Government won't confirm resignation on eve of report into spending scandals at eHealth Ontario

Health Minister David Caplan has resigned on the eve of a report into spending scandals at an agency tasked with creating electronic health records.

Sources told the Canadian Press Tuesday that Caplan tendered his resignation to Premier Dalton McGuinty. However, the Liberal government will not confirm the minister has quit.

Full story: The Toronto Star

All I have to say is; it's about time!  This government has gotten away with too much of this wasteful nonsense for far too long. Wake up people!

McGuinty Gets Scared

This tidbit comes from our esteemed premier;

"When it comes to our 23 biggest agencies, boards and commissions, that they follow the same rules we in government follow," he said. "Their expenses must be approved separately and independently by the integrity commissioner." Source: thestar.com

Yes, that sounds all well and good, but considering the way the media (and rightly so) has been following the e-health fiasco, McSquinty must be shitting in his pretty tailored suit. So now he has swept the deck at the OLG, but lets get real. The OLG has obviously been mismanged for quite sometime, and furthermore the premier has been in power for six years... and just now he's realizing that his cronies are mis-spending public funds! What a shocker! This jerk needs to find a new job. I certainly won't be voting for him in the future and I hope you don't either.