The financial situation in the province of Ontario is not good. It was recently announced that the deficit for the year has ballooned to $24.7 billion. What’s worse is the way that the McGuinty Liberals intend to combat the mounting red ink. Dalton has said that he doesn’t intend to increase taxes. He’s made that promise twice before.
The first time was during the 2003 election campaign when he solemnly looked into the cameras and told Ontarians that they wouldn’t pay one penny more in taxes than they were currently paying. A few months after taking power McGuinty imposed a new healthcare tax; the largest tax grab in the province’s history.
After again promising not to raise taxes, the premier announced that Ontario would be implementing the Harmonized Sales Tax in July 2010. In the middle of a serious recession, Ontarians will get to pay 8% more on services and those goods that are currently exempt from provincial sales tax. About the only way to get ahead financially these days is to win the pool on what tax Dalton will impose or increase next.
Not only will taxes not go up but Finance Minister Dwight Duncan announced earlier this week that the province will eventually balance the budget without reducing spending. The difference between Duncan and the premier is that the Finance Minister appears to be speaking the truth. Within two days of Duncan’s statement, McGuinty announced that the province will go ahead with plans to bring in full day kindergarten for 4 and 5-year-olds. Although the plan will not be fully implemented until 2015, Ontario will spend a half a billion dollars over the next two years. When critics questioned how so much money could be spent at a time when the deficit was so high, McGuinty gave the stock answer of the tax and spend liberal – we can’t afford not to. According to the Liberals, forcing children to spend all day rather than half a day in kindergarten will make them more economically productive in their later years. Spending more hours in kindergarten will strengthen the economy.
So now you know. The reason that we are in such dire straits economically is that McGuinty, Duncan and the rest of the Liberal boys and girls all had deprived childhoods. Not being able to attend kindergarten for a full day when they were just little tots, led them to know absolutely nothing about economic matters or how to balance a budget. If only they had had more kindergarten, Ontario’s economy would now be booming.
Despite all this silly spending, Dalton McGuinty came up with at least one way to save some of the province’s taxpayers’ hard earned money. McGuinty has rejected calls to hold a public inquiry concerning the eHealth scandal. About $1 billion has been spent in the pursuit of putting the health records of all Ontarians online and the province has practically nothing to show for it. Evidence has emerged of sole source contracts being given to Liberal-friendly companies and big bucks paid for practically no work. None of this justifies that money that would further be spent in holding a public inquiry.
Hopefully one day some government somewhere in Canada will hold a public inquiry on why we have so many public inquiries. By the time a public inquiry is finished and its report made public it is three or four scandals later and everyone has moved on. Regarding eHealth, we all know what happened. Because eHealth involves the healthcare system, those who run it have delusions of grandeur; that they are saving lives. They rationalize to themselves that speed is of the essence and this justifies handing out large, untendered contracts. Those at the top feel entitled to spend the millions that they spend. What happened at eHealth is not surprising; it is just a natural consequence of a government with a nanny state mentality. The cops should be called in to investigate whether or not any laws were broken. But beyond that, a public inquiry would simply tell us what we already know.
When Toronto city councillor Sandra Bussin called a radio station and talked about city affairs without identifying herself, there were some calls to have the matter investigated by the city’s Integrity Commissioners. The Toronto Sun had the right idea when they editorialized that since everyone knows that Bussin lacks integrity, it would be a waste of time and money to investigate it. And so it is with eHealth and Ontario’s Liberal government.
McGuinty of course does not want an investigation to protect himself, his ministers and his appointments to eHealth Ontario. But it is still a rare occasion when Dalton McGuinty Jr. saves some money for the taxpayers of the province.
Thank you, Dalton!
