9 June, 2009
In Collingwood on Saturday I was asked what word best describes the McGuinty government as it nears the halfway point of its mandate.  For me, the most accurate descriptor is 'arrogance.'
 
We saw the arrogance as the Legislature wrapped up for the summer last week.  How else could you describe using the stroke of a government pen to take 2,293 hectares of land out of the County of Simcoe only to hand it over to the City of Barrie?  As Mayor Tom Walsh of Adjala-Tosorontio told me, and I later relayed to the Minister of Municipal Affairs in the Legislature, the Barrie-Innisfil Boundary Adjustment Act is going to cause damage to the County because the commercial and industrial tax base isn't going to be there anymore to help pay the County bills.  That hurts all of us.
 
Another shining example of Liberal arrogance is the eHealth fiasco at the Ministry of Health.  That is where after a mere three months on the job at $380,000 a year, eHealth CEO Sarah Kramer gave herself a $114,000 bonus.  As if that wasn't enough, over a four-month period, Kramer spent nearly $5 million in taxpayer-funded health care dollars on fees for outside consultants, without allowing public bids. In fact, Ms. Kramer paid one consultant $300 an hour to read newspapers, watch television, and engage in conversations on the subway.  And then there was the consultant who submitted an invoice for eight hours of work where she said she consulted herself, and then followed up with questions for herself.
 
Even more arrogance came last week as I tried to resolve a pension issue for a number of Simcoe County paramedics.  Due to current pension legislation these paramedics are not allowed to transfer their pension assets from one plan to another.  In an attempt to fix this technicality, I forced a debate on a Resolution that called upon the government to implement the recommendations of its own pension commission that said the government ought to do something about this.    While everyone in the Legislature seemed to agree that portability of pensions is an issue that needs to be addressed, the Liberals wouldn't support my Resolution because I was asking them to act "immediately."  The Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Finance said the "government needs time." He even said "I am not at all adverse to what the member is suggesting we do," and yet the Liberals still couldn't support my non-binding Resolution in support of hardworking paramedics.  That, my friends, is arrogance because if it's not their idea and from their party, they will find any ridiculous reason they can to oppose you.
 
The fact of the matter is that the Liberals are running a government where there is an $18.5 billion deficit, while rural schools are slated to close and a million Ontarians are still without a family doctor.  The provincial debt has doubled under Liberal rule and we spend a million dollars an hour in interest alone just to service the provincial debt.  On top of all of that, the Liberals are about to bring in their biggest tax grab yet with the new McGuinty sales tax.  There is no reason to be arrogant.