“Even Mr. McGuinty’s approach to solving his deficit dilemma reflects his extreme reluctance to face up to problems. With the shortfalls piling up, the Premier appointed economist Don Drummond to assess the situation and propose solutions…. The Premier, who has seen the report, is now using it as a foil to protect himself when the full details are released.”
- National Post, ‘The McGuinty syndrome’, February 6, 2012
QUEEN’S PARK – Lost in all the chatter about uncontrolled health spending as the focus of the forthcoming Drummond Report is the fact that spending is out of control in nearly every Ministry of the McGuinty government, Ontario PC Finance Critic Peter Shurman said today.
“We anticipate a four hundred page report card on Dalton McGuinty with four hundred ‘needs-to-improve’ marks in the margins,” Shurman said. “This would constitute a failing grade in most schools – most notably the school of public opinion.
“And this from a Premier who said he would only take the advice he chooses.”
The reality, Shurman said, is that since last year spending has shot up in all but two Ministries, citing as just two examples:
“Total government spending – in the face of an obviously worsening Ontario economy – is up $3.4 billion from last year, which brings total spending for this fiscal year to $124.1 billion.”
It’s as though Dalton McGuinty ran out to buy a houseful of new furniture after his roof had fallen in, Shurman added: “The man simply can’t stop spending, and now we’re all paying the bills.”
Further, Shurman noted that over the past several years, Ontario’s Auditor General has repeatedly expressed his concerns with so-called “year-end burnoff” – in which Ministries use the well-known practice of rushing through spending in the last month of their budget cycles.
Bottom line: Not only is Dalton McGuinty’s chronic spending problem on full display without the need for a Drummond Report to highlight it – there is also a significant accountability and transparency problem in the way the money is spent, Shurman said.
“It’s ironic that my Party has been calling for spending reductions in all but the two priority areas of Health and Education,” Shurman said, “while at the same time Dalton McGuinty has been hiking spending in every Ministry except two.”
“We need to drive fiscal responsibility and transparency into ever corner of government, so we can actually afford the front-line services that Ontarians depend on – like health and education,” Shurman concluded.
“And Ontarians don’t need a Don Drummond to tell us that.”
Authorized by the CFO of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
