Jim McCarter, Ontario’s auditor General issued a scathing report on the way the province issues drivers licenses. The auditor General found that not only had 56,000 documents gone missing through theft or simply being misplaced, but no one in the Ministry of Transportation seemed to show any concern about it. There was little or no investigation into the missing documents and the police were not notified. The report also revealed that out of 280 private issuing networks (PINs), 60 of the offices had never been audited.
another disturbing fact that came out of the auditor’s report was that membership cards from Costco and Sam’s Club were often considered sufficient identification in which to obtain a valid Ontario’s driver’s license.
When confronted with the auditor General’s report, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty did what he always does. More than two years into his mandate he still blames the previous Conservative government for anything that goes wrong. There comes a time, no doubt already reached, where McGuinty’s trying to avoid responsibility for the actions of his government by blaming the previous government becomes totally absurd.
Knowing that he had to come up with something other than blaming big bad Mike Harris, the Premier attempted to downplay the missing documentation and the way his government issues drivers’ licenses. He tried to squirm out of it by saying that most of the missing documents were not drivers’ licenses but other documents such as vehicle registration stickers. The fact that any misplaced or stolen licenses can be used by terrorists and criminals to allow them to easily access other documents like passports seemed to go right over McGuinty’s head, so aptly described by former Premier Ernie Eves as being a little pointy one.
Proof positive that the Ontario premier hasn’t got a clue surfaced the day after the aG issued his 2005 report. McGuinty announced that when he attends a meeting of the Council of Great Lakes Governors in Milwaukee this week he was going to press the americans to give up their plans to require passports to be used to cross the Canada/U.S. border. McGuinty drew howls of laughter from the opposition and the media when he said, presumably with a straight face, that drivers’ licenses should be sufficient identification to cross the border.
It’s bad enough that a lack of controls over Ministry of Transport documentations leads to unlicensed and unqualified drivers being on the road with false or forged documentation. But the reality is that if they didn’t have those documents, they would just go and drive anyway. The real danger, seen by almost everyone except those in a position of authority whose job it is to protect us, is the easy access that terrorists have to legitimate looking identification documentation.
This is the most blatant case of the total lack of concern that governments have in this country regarding the possibility of a terrorist attack. What happened with the Ministry of Transportation was not simply an isolated case; it was a pattern of conduct. First the documents went missing. Then no one in the offices where the documents initially were or in the entire ministry took it seriously. No, or not much of an investigation was undertaken and more importantly, it never entered anyone’s head that this might be an appropriate situation to notify the police. Rumour has it that police can sometimes solve crimes if those crimes are reported. More importantly, this province is led by a dufus who can’t understand why Ontario drivers’ licenses are considered not sufficient to gain entry to the United States when stolen and missing licenses are floating around out there and when legitimate ones can be obtained by anyone who is willing to obtain a Costco card.
While a terrorist attack on a Canadian target such as a subway system or a large facility would be serious, there would undoubtedly be greater economic damage done to Canada if an attack took place in the United States by terrorists who entered that country from this country.
It seems the only way a terrorist in Ontario could not obtain proper ID is if they somehow couldn’t decide whether to join Sam’s Club or Costco.
Heads should roll at the Ontario Department of Transport. But they won’t. Dalton McGuinty still doesn’t see the seriousness of what the auditor General discovered.