by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
January 13, 2005
Government waste of taxpayers’ money is far from an isolated event. Most of the time, the taxpayer doesn’t know that their hard earned tax dollars are being wasted on a particular cause until after the spending is completed and the final details are released. What is rare is when a government announces in advance that they are about to throw your money away.
But, these are not ordinary times in Ontario and Dalton McGuinty is no ordinary premier.
Dalton McGuinty, who is destined to become immortalized in the pages of the Guinness Book of Records for the most lies told in a single election campaign, promised prior to the 2003 vote that he would prevent increases of the tolls on Highway 407, a road that is north of Toronto and runs parallel, more or less, to Highway 401.
The previous ruling Progressive Conservatives sold the highway to a private consortium back in 1999; a move that is almost universally agreed to have been a bad one. Since becoming privatized the highway has been plagued by constantly rising tolls and horror stories of people receiving constantly escalating bills for using a highway that they had never travelled on. So when the election called, Dalton promised that if he was elected, his government would not give the owners permission for further toll increases.
Dalton and his boys and girls were so busy making up election promises that they couldn’t possibly keep that no one actually got around to reading the contract that was entered into when Highway 407 was privatized by the Tories. as it turned out, the owners did not need to seek permission of the government to raise the cost of using the highway. Last week, an Ontario Superior Court justice confirmed that fact and before the justice’s signature on the order had time to dry, tolls were increased by one cent a kilometre.
Now the premier is determined to throw good money after bad by continuing to fight the matter in court. Said McGuinty, "We’re not prepared to accept that Ontarians must be subject to a contract over which the (previous) government has effectively abandoned its responsibility when it comes to protecting their interests". So Dalton the Magician (now it’s a premium, now it’s a tax) will continue the costly litigation that will cost taxpayers even more money’ money that could be used for such things as education and health care. and it will of course cost the owners of the highway big bucks that they will ultimately recoup from even higher tolls.
John Tory, leader of the opposition and NDP leader Howard Hampton both saw right through McGuinty; and with respect to both of them, that was not a particular difficult feat. McGuinty doesn’t care about how much it costs to keep fighting the owners of the highway. He doesn’t care about what the chances are that the government will be successful in getting the last word as to what rates can be charged. all Dalton cares about is Dalton. He’ll spend any amount of money on further litigation if he thinks there is any chance at all that he can keep the irresponsible promise that he made during the election campaign to prevent increases. It also doesn’t seem to be a consideration that the owners of 407, who have already spent millions in fighting the government, will end up spending more and passing that cost on to drivers of the highway by way of even higher toll charges.
The way McGuinty and the Liberals talk, you would get the impression that driving on Highway 407 is some kind of necessity; like hydro; and of course it isn’t. If someone wants to avoid what they think are unreasonable charges, they can always use alternate routes such as Highway 401. People are free to leave the highway to those that don’t care about the fees or businesses that can justify the high cost of using the highway as an appropriate cost of doing business.
Eventually someone will go to court and argue that they have a right under the Charter to use the highway at a reasonable cost. and the way our courts are going, that action would probably succeed. But until then McGuinty should end wasting the taxpayers’ money and let the market forces govern the highway.
Market forces — what a novel idea for the McGuinty Liberals.