NEWS:

Mere days after Dalton McGuinty ruled out legalizing mixed martial arts competition in Ontario, he once again has been caught backtracking when he used a Saturday morning news release sneak in a complete reversal of his position.

This is the latest example of the McGuinty Liberals backtracking on their stated priorities.  In the last few weeks alone Dalton McGuinty has been forced to backtrack on defending illegal meetings at the LHINs, ramming through a massive new eco-tax, creating a monster new SuperCorp and paying massive subsidies for solar power.

This latest McGuinty climbdown is also more evidence that the out-of-touch McGuinty Government is in complete disarray and desperate for money to fuel its out-of-control spending.  Dalton McGuinty’s MMA climbdown is the fifth cash-grab attempted by Dalton McGuinty this summer alone and follows hot on the heel of his HST tax grab, eco-tax, attempted SuperCorp sell-off, and online casino schemes.

QUOTES:

– Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

– Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

QUICK FACTS:

Previous examples of Dalton McGuinty backtracking includes:

• Imposing the so-called Health Tax after promising not to.
• Breaking his promise to close the coal plants on three different occasions.
• Breaking his promise on solar subsidies twice in one month.
• Climbing down on his plan to teach sex-ed to six year olds.
• Climbing down on his plan to sell off a monster ‘SuperCorp’
• Temporarily backing down from his eco-tax grab.
• Backing down from his commitment to build new nuclear capacity.

News

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak announced today his commitment that a PC Government will repeal the damaging Bill 191 – The Far North Act – should the McGuinty Government pass it as written.

Bill 191 is a sweeping piece of Liberal legislation that will choke off 50 per cent of northern Ontario from future economic development at a time when northern Ontario families need new jobs and investment. This bad bill was rammed through the Ontario Legislature in 2009 without any consultation or accountability to the northern families and businesses. It comes up for final reading in September.

Hudak said the Ontario PC Caucus recognizes that charting a new course to northern jobs and growth must include northern input while striking a balance between economic growth and protection of our natural heritage, such as boreal forests. Hudak and Ontario PC Critic for Northern Development, Mines and Forestry, MPP Randy Hillier, are continuing to consult with northern Ontario families and business, municipal and First Nations leaders on ideas to create northern jobs and build the northern economy.

Quotes

–Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

–Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

Quick Facts

Organizations that oppose Dalton McGuinty’s Far North Act, include:

• Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities
• Ontario Prospectors Association
• Ontario Mining Association
• Ontario Forest Industries Assoc.
• Nishnawbe Aski Nation
• Metis Nation of Ontario
• Congress of Aboriginal Peoples
• Ontario Real Estate Association
• Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce
• Ontario Chamber of Commerce

Dalton McGuinty has presided over the loss of 45,000 northern jobs and the closure of 60 mills.

News

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak announced today his commitment that a PC Government will repeal the damaging Bill 191 – The Far North Act – should the McGuinty Government pass it as written.

Bill 191 is a sweeping piece of Liberal legislation that will choke off 50 per cent of northern Ontario from future economic development at a time when northern Ontario families need new jobs and investment. This bad bill was rammed through the Ontario Legislature in 2009 without any consultation or accountability to the northern families and businesses. It comes up for final reading in September.   

Hudak said the Ontario PC Caucus recognizes that charting a new course to northern jobs and growth must include northern input while striking a balance between economic growth and protection of our natural heritage, such as boreal forests. Hudak and Ontario PC Critic for Northern Development, Mines and Forestry, MPP Randy Hillier, are continuing to consult with northern Ontario families and business, municipal and First Nations leaders on ideas to create northern jobs and the build the northern economy.

Quotes

–Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

–Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

Quick Facts

Organizations that oppose Dalton McGuinty’s Far North Act, include:

• Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities
• Ontario Prospectors Association
• Ontario Mining Association
• Ontario Forest Industries Assoc.
• Nishnawbe Aski Nation
• Metis Nation of Ontario
• Congress of Aboriginal Peoples
• Ontario Real Estate Association
• Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce
• Ontario Chamber of Commerce

Dalton McGuinty has presided over the loss of 45,000 northern jobs (including hundreds at Abitibi-Bowater and St. Mary’s Paper) and the closure of 60 mills.

NEWS:

Today, Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak and Ontario PC Health Critic Christine Elliott called for a full review of the recent health care cuts imposed by Dalton McGuinty’s Hamilton – Niagara – Haldimand – Brant (HNHB) LHIN, after an investigation by Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin confirmed that the LHIN made these decisions through a “secret” and “plainly illegal” process.  The LHIN closed emergency rooms in Niagara.

In light of the Ombudsman’s finding that the “illegal bylaw” used by the LHIN had to be copied by Dalton McGuinty’s 13 other regional health care bureaucracies, Hudak and Elliott also repeated their call that Dalton McGuinty honour his legal commitment to hold a full legislative review of every LHIN bureaucracy, which is he secretly cancelled in the 2010 Ontario Budget papers.

The Ontario PC Caucus have uncovered waste, untendered contracts and bloated salaries at the LHINs across Ontario. To date, the LHINs have squandered $200 million health care dollars on salaries and administration while mismanaging at $250 million Aging at Home strategy for Ontario seniors.  Hudak repeated his commitment that, as Premier, he will eliminate McGuinty’s LHIN bureaucracies and reinvest this money into frontline patient care.

QUOTES:

– Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

– Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

QUICK FACTS:

Ombudsman Andre Marin’s report said the following:

• “While the LHIN may have been well-intentioned in holding its ‘education’ sessions, these meetings were plainly illegal.”

• “The LHIN’s apparent failure to grasp the significant of its transgressions – and its reluctance to alter its practice – do not bode well for the integrity of its decision-making in the future.”

• “Despite its lip service to the principle of transparency, the Ministry is not fully committed to openness with respect to the LHIN process.”

NEWS:

QUEEN’S PARK – The growing pattern of secrecy and lack of accountability within the McGuinty Government – seen most recently with the Liberal eco tax disaster – is showing up again in Dalton McGuinty’s Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) bureaucracy. Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak today challenged Dalton McGuinty that if he won’t scrap the LHINs, he must move forward with the legally required LHIN legislative review.

Dalton McGuinty was legally required to hold a full LHIN legislative review by the end of March of this year. Instead, he sneakily cancelled the review and, to cover his tracks, he buried his decision to put off the review until conveniently after the next election on Page 164 of the 2010 budget.

With Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin’s report on the Hamilton-Niagara-Haldimand-Brant LHIN due out tomorrow, and a separate review of complaints made against the North East LHIN underway, Hudak outlined the urgent need for a full LHIN review. The evidence includes: at least $7 million discovered in untended LHIN contracts, the revelation that the Erie-St. Clair LHIN withheld details about botched pathology results from the public, nearly $200 million health care dollars wasted on LHIN salaries and administration, and the LHINs’ failed implementation of the Aging at Home strategy.

QUOTES:

–Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

–Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

QUICK FACTS:

• The LHINs continue to divert health care dollars away from the frontlines. Nearly $200 million has been wasted on LHIN administration costs.
• The Ontario PC Caucus has discovered, over a two-year period, that the LHINs handed out over $7 million in eHealth style untendered contracts

• The LHINs have also failed their first real test by mismanaging the ‘Aging at Home’ strategy. After spending over $250 million health care dollars, wait lists for long-term care beds continue to grow and emergency room wait times remain well above the provincial benchmarks.

NEWS:

BARRIE – Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak and Garfield Dunlop, MPP for Simcoe North, today met with a group of home care service providers and seniors at the office of Senior Homecare by Angels to discuss ideas on how to better provide seniors with access to proper health care. Dalton McGuinty’s LHINs have failed their first real test, mismanaging an Aging at Home strategy.

After three years and $250 million, Dalton McGuinty’s LHINs have failed to make progress on the Aging at Home strategy’s goals of reducing the number of long-term care (LTC) and alternate-level-of-care (ALC) patients, and reducing emergency room wait times. Since the LHINs started managing the strategy, the provincial wait list for LTC beds has grown by 4,000 people and emergency room wait times remain above provincial targets.

The North Simcoe Muskoka LHIN, which represents Barrie, spent over $10.5 million in the first three years on the Aging at Home strategy, yet its wait list for long-term care has increased by over 500 people, the percentage of ALC patients occupying hospital beds is the second worst in Ontario, and wait times at the Royal Victoria ER remain above the provincial benchmark.

QUOTES:

– Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

– Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

QUICK FACTS:

• Since the LHINs started to manage the Aging at Home strategy, the wait list for long-term care beds (which has doubled under Dalton McGuinty to over 24,000) has grown by 4,000 people.

• The North Simcoe Muskoka LHIN spent over $10.5 million in the first three years of the Aging at Home strategy, yet its LTC wait list has increased by over 500 and the percentage of ALC patients occupying hospital beds is the second worst in Ontario.

• Since 2006, $176 million health care dollars have been spent on administrative expenses at all LHINs, including nearly $11 million to run the North Simcoe Muskoka LHIN.

News

LONDON – Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak today met with a group of home care service providers to discuss ideas on how to better provide seniors with access to proper health care. Dalton McGuinty’s LHINs have failed their first real test, mismanaging an Aging at Home strategy that has cost $250 million health care dollars, yet resulted in long wait times for seniors.

After three years and $250 million, Dalton McGuinty’s LHINs have failed to make progress on the Aging at Home strategy’s goals of reducing the number of long-term care (LTC) patients and reducing emergency room wait times. Since the LHINs started managing the strategy, the provincial wait list for LTC beds has grown by 4,000 people and emergency room wait times remain above provincial targets.

The South West LHIN, which represents London, spent nearly $25 million in the first three years the Aging at Home strategy, yet its wait list for long-term care has increased by over 100 people since the program began and wait times in London area emergency departments remain well above the provincial benchmark.

Quotes

– Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

– Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

Quick Facts

• Since the LHINs started to manage the Aging at Home strategy, the wait list for long-term care beds (which has doubled under Dalton McGuinty to over 24,000) has grown by 4,000 people.
• The South West LHIN spent $24.7 million in the first three years of the Aging at Home strategy, yet its LTC wait list has increased by over 100 and London area ER wait times remain well above the provincial benchmark of eight hours.
• Since 2006, $176 million health care dollars have been spent on administrative expenses at all LHINs, including $12.2 million to run the South West LHIN.

News

Now that the McGuinty Government is leaving taxpayers on the hook for the operations of Stewardship Ontario, they must also force their secret eco-tax collectors to publicly account for how this money is being spent.

Today Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak demanded that Stewardship Ontario and the other Waste Diversion Ontario secretive government agencies responsible for provincial recycling programs be held to a higher standard of transparency and accountability. Hudak called on Dalton McGuinty to ensure that Waste Diversion Ontario and its component agencies make public the salaries of its senior executives, reveal the terms of all eHealth-style consultant contracts and abide by Ontario’s Freedom of Information laws.

Hudak pointed out that a second Waste Diversion Ontario agency – the Ontario Electronic Stewardship – still refuses to make public its annual report and financial statements despite being legally required to do so by April 1, 2010.

Quotes

– Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

– Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

Quick Facts

• To date, both Stewardship Ontario and the Ontario Electronic Stewardship are refusing to provide the public with any details about executive salaries, consulting contracts or board minutes.
• Under Section 33 (1) of the Waste Diversion Act, Ontario Electronic Stewardship was legally required to release a public annual report and financial statements by April 1, 2010. Ontario Electronic Stewardship has failed to do so.
• The Ontario PC Truth in Government Act would have extended Ontario’s Freedom of Information laws to cover Waste Diversion Ontario and all other provincial public bodies. In addition, the Truth in Government Act would have required Waste Diversion Ontario and all provincial public bodies to publicly disclose consulting contracts, travel and hospitality expenses, job reclassifications and grants handed out.