McGuinty hide and sneak politics continue to cost Ontario

For Immediate Release:
May 5, 2011

Queens Park — Ontario residents continue to pay a hefty price for Dalton McGuinty’s attempts to bury controversial government direction.

That from Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett following a day in which government approved a two line budget bill amendment to remove key accountability measures, while news reports unveiled Dalton McGuinty’s secret deal with Ontario’s largest public sector union.

“This morning I watched as my Opposition colleague Norm Miller, NDP Peter Tabuns and myself were out-voted in our attempt to delete an amendment that will allow hospitals to shield from public scrutiny any information about quality of care produced for or by a hospital committee,” stated Barrett. “Later on we watched as McGuinty’s team defended a deal with Ontario’s largest public sector union that will see its employees receive a secret salary top up, conveniently after the next election.”

Barrett went on to note that the budget bill amendment known as schedule 15 was approved by government members despite a vocal opposition that included a number of people from the Haldimand-Norfolk area. Ed Vander Vegte and Kim Hessels of Dunnville both took the opportunity to state their concerns for patient safety to the Finance Committee previous to today’s vote.

Meantime, records from the Ontario Labour Relations Board reveal that Dalton McGuinty cut a secret deal with leaders of the Ontario Public Sector Employees Union (OPSEU) to give 38,000 employees an additional 1 percent top up to their salaries, and then hired lawyers to try to bury the evidence. The deal was already on the books when Dalton McGuinty and his ministers were promising Ontario families they would freeze public sector wages – a promise they’ve broken numerous times in public, let alone with union bosses behind closed doors.

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For more information, please contact MPP Toby Barrett at: (416) 325-8404,

(519) 428-0446 or 1-800-903-8629