On September 18, the body of 18-year-old Ottawa area resident, Jennifer Teague was found by an off duty police officer, who was out walking his dog. The teen had disappeared 10 days after finishing her shift at a Wendy's restaurant at 12:30 a.m. She had met some friends at a local convenience store before starting out on the 10-minute walk to her home. She never arrived.
You would expect that there would be outrage at the crime and calls for tougher penalties and more police; calls that always seem to fall on deaf ears. There was some of this, but this being Canada, there were also immediate complaints that the government had not done enough to regulate and control Jennifer's all too short life.
There were demands by the NDP and others for employers to provide transportation home for employees who are required to work late. and others, including teachers jumped on the bandwagon and want the government to prohibit students from working past 10 p.m. on school nights. What was surprising was the reaction of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to these proposed legislative changes. Without missing a beat, the Premier rejected both suggestions. Regarding transporting workers home safely, McGuinty said that most employers were good corporate citizens and that legislation was not required. Dalton also said that the decision as to whether or not a student should be allowed to work past 10 p.m. was one that should be left to the student's parents.
McGuinty was right in rejecting these proposals. as the critics have pointed out, mandating transportation for employees who are required to work late would be too costly for small and medium companies that are trying to exist in a climate of excessive taxation (a lot more pennies than were promised) and other restrictions. Most employees are not in the position that Jennifer Teague was in; of working a very short distance from their homes. The cost of transporting employees to their homes over any relevant distance would be astronomical to a struggling business.
as the NDP is prone to do, leader Howard Hampton had a simplistic solution. Companies could just negotiate bulk rates with cab companies, as if buying cab rides wholesale couldn't possibly adversely impact a struggling business. Cab rides are expensive and are likely to jump steeply to pay for the ever increasing cost of gasoline. Hampton can probably be forgiven for thinking this is a small expense because it's unlikely he can remember the last time he took a taxi and paid for it himself. Imposing this burden on companies would result in less hiring of employees and discrimination against those who live great distances from their work. If a small business was forced to provide transportation and the resultant cost pushed them over the edge into bankruptcy, Hampton would be the first in line to bemoan the loss of jobs.
While employers could be required to legally "offer" employees transportation home from work, employees could not be made to take them. after she completed her shift, Jennifer Teague decided to meet some friends at a store before heading home. For those who were so quick to say that employers should be required to provide transportation for employee, would companies be required to wait for employees who decide to stop off along the way? Jennifer Teague is but one example and this is all the more reason why legislation should not be drafted in response to one incident, no matter how tragic that incident is.
Dalton McGuinty made a good decision in quickly rejecting this half-baked idea that was raised in the aftermath of Jennifer's tragic death. But what is truly amazing was that his remarks run completely contrary to the willingness to interfere with people's lives and rights that this government has shown since they were first elected. The Ontario Liberals have been quick to trample on the rights of the populace from banning pit bulls to junk food bans in school, to being oblivious to the privacy rights of birth mothers who gave up their children years ago, to depriving Christians and Jews of religious arbitrations so as not to offend Muslims. It is hard to believe that the government that once considered banning non-pre-frozen sushi from sale in the province because of some anecdotal evidence of tummy upsets somewhere in the world is allowing businesses to make business decisions.
If McGuinty's decision to reject legislation requiring rides home for employees wasn't a complete aberration, made by a distracted premier who was simply winging it, there may be hope for Dalton yet.