The auditor general's report on Ontario's health system provides more damning evidence of the sheer incompetence and/or corruption of public officials. Every year, Ontario residents (and Canadians and taxpayers everywhere) are confronted with reports of bureaucratic disasters in which billions of dollars are found to be wasted. And yet, virtually nothing happens, we tolerate it. The fact that Mr. George Smitherman can run for mayor with his track record of incompetence and neglect is telling. Moreover, Bob Rae, perhaps the worst premier in the history of Canada, continues to have a political career and is loyally re-elected by the overly forgiving residents of Toronto to his comfy seat in Ottawa where he enjoys perks, benefits, and a pension plan the rest of us can only dream of.
At what point do we say "enough is enough"? I have to side with Bill Buckley in thinking that the first 500 names in the phone book could manage things better than our current crop of politicians and bureaucrats at Queen's Park.
The waste is absolutely incomprehensible: "In one instance, auditors found a hospital awarded one consulting firm a multi-year contract in March 2008 worth $700,000, but failed to provide a description of the services needed, or a time frame for delivery."
This is outright fraud that should be criminally prosecuted. Nowhere could this happen in a public company without serious investigations, and yet corporations which create jobs and wealth are demonized by politicians who have never held a real job in the private sector (i.e. McGuinty, Smitherman, Rae, Layton, Ignatieff, Chretien, Miller, etc.) in which making a profit mattered. I'd like to hear these buffoons explain how a job is created in their own words. It's no wonder that our central planners have no clue as to how jobs and wealth are created while social ills go unsolved despite having billions of dollars thrown at them each year.
The National Post further reports, "In an interview, Mr. McCarter said that while it's not reasonable for the public to expect the health minister to monitor LHIN and hospital activities on a daily basis, the minister is "ultimately accountable for what happens in health care."
That's true, but that doesn't mean there shouldn't be accountability. Every hospital and health center where such malfeasance was occurring should have their CEO fired and the board of directors removed. It is inexcusable that such waste could be occurring without oversight or knowledge. Furthermore, exactly who these "consultants" were should be investigated. Did they have ties to key government officials? Were they former lobbyists? Did any of the work they did actually benefit the organizations paying them?
It is infuriating as a tax payer to see such waste after seeing how little of my paycheck I actually get to keep. To think of how much personal debt I could pay down and how much I could put away for retirement were it not for the government seizing that big chunk of my paycheck every two weeks is both depressing and maddening.
I want accountability and I want heads to roll because of this. Mr. Hudak should, and I'm sure he will, be reminding the voters of the gross incompetence that has manifested itself repeatedly since McGuinty took office.
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