Corporate welfare bums...

This item appeared in the Dember 28th, 2013 edition of the Toronto Sun newspaper. 

A crony capitalist Christmas

ANTHONY FUREY | QMI AGENCY

The year began badly for taxpayers all across Canada and it will certainly end that way.

But if you’re a crony capitalist and think government should be doling out the grants to companies both minor and massive, then you had reason to be full with Christmas cheer this year.

On Jan. 4, Stephen Harper committed $250 million to fund research and development by major automakers. This was a re-issue of a 2008 five-year fund. The excuse back then was the economic crisis. What’s the excuse this time around? After all, the fund goes until 2018.

To close off the year, on Dec. 13 Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne delivered a big corporate kiss under the mistletoe to Cisco System’s Canada division. Taxpayers will dole out $220 million to a company that, worldwide, had revenues of $49 billion in fiscal 2013.

“Cisco profit soars 56%” is the headline of an August 2012 CNN story. Huh. I wonder if Ontario taxpayers will see their incomes soar by the same amount.

You’ve also got to love the wording of the government’s press release. The grant will create “up to” 1,700 jobs. Cisco is investing “up to” $2.2 billion in salaries.

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You can read the rest of it at: http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2013/12/20131228-073825.html

December 25, 2013 - It's Christmas, so...

Time to say something positive about Dalton McGuinty:

Hmm ... At least he quit before he could do any more damage.

There, I've done my good deed for the season.

Billions blown by Ontario government but who's counting?

This is the headline from an article that appeared in the Toronto Sun, today. I'll provide the link below, but first I want to make a comment.

Chances are you will read this headline, shake your head, and move on. That's what governments--ALL governments--are counting on. That's why they're so nonchalant about tossing taxpayer dollars against the wall, hoping some of it will stick until they can get elected or re-elected.

The fact is, we should be outraged. We should be so outraged that we should be looking for a rail, boiling the tar, and plucking the chicken.

Have you a billion to squander? I thought not. Neither do I. To put it into perspective, here's what it could buy (just multiply everything by 2).

One of the lines from the above mentioned article that struck me, was the following:

"A billion here, a billion there.
 Lets see there is eHealth, Ornge, the cancelled gas plants, coal plants, the Caledonia mess, the HST, smart metres, the tire tax, the cancelled nuclear program, the Samsung deal."

Any one of these should have sent the populace into a frenzy.

I know you're not going to riot in the streets. Canadians don't do that. We're too polite. But at least write a letter of complaint. All the email addressed of the cabinet ministers are listed (see http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/members/members_current.do?locale=en&list_type=ministers&go=go), so let them know how you feel.

Anyway, if you want to read the full, unhappy story, got to: Billions blown by Ontario government but who's counting? BY JOE WARMINGTON, TORONTO SUN

The extravagance of OPG (Ontario Power Group) goes on and on...

Auditor finds OPG generous salaries, pensions, bonuses push up electricity rates

By Keith Leslie, The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press

TORONTO - Salaries, pensions and bonuses at Ontario Power Generation are "significantly more generous" than for comparable positions in the civil service, and have a financial impact on the cost of electricity, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk reported Tuesday.

OPG has cut staff by 8.5 per cent, but increased the size of "its highly paid executive and senior management group" by almost 60 per cent since 2005, creating "a top heavy organization," Lysyk said in her annual report.

"Earnings and benefits were significantly more generous at OPG than for comparable positions in the Ontario Public Service, and many of OPG's senior executives earned more than most deputy ministers," she reported.

See the full story Yahoo News.ca

This just in: Bob Chiarelli's response:

"Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli said OPG knows the auditor's conclusions are unacceptable.

"The auditor's findings indicate that Ontario can and should expect better, and OPG takes this report as seriously as we do," he said." [editor's note: Which is not at all.]

Bob Chiarelli to struggling Hydro One users: 'Let them drink coffee.'

This following commentary was published in the Toronto Sun Newspaper, today. It is another indictment of Dalton McGuinty's disastrous policies, and this government's ludicrous attempts to cover it up.

ANTHONY FUREY | QMI AGENCY

Sometimes it's the little things that make it clear just how off the rails a government has become.Sure, the main thrust of Ontario's new long-term energy plan is bad enough. Residential rates are going up 42% over five years.

We're reminded big government disproportionately discriminates against the little guy. The average monthly bill will increase from $125 to $178.

If you're just getting by without a raise in sight this can be enough to knock you into the red.
Then again, you may lose your job before then. Statistics compiled by Hydro Quebec show that a big manufacturer using a lot of energy will pay $3.3 million per month in Toronto, but only $1.4 million a month in Montreal or $1.5 million in Vancouver.

That's a difference of more than $20 million a year. No hard feelings Ontario employees, but time for us to relocate, says many a cost-conscious CEO.

To read the whole commentary, go to: Toronto Sun Newspaper

Chris Mazza is laughing all the way to the bank -- Another of Dalton McGoony's legacies

Ousted Ornge CEO Chris Mazza.

News that the founder of Ontario's scandal-dogged air ambulance service got more than $9 million in compensation before being fired nearly two years ago won't be a confidence-booster for the province's taxpayers concerned about public-sector transpancy.

Dr. Chris Mazza, CEO of ORNGE until he was dismissed early last year, received $9.3 million in public money over a period of six years, according to documents obtained by the Toronto Star.

The accounting ORNGE prepared for a provincial government audit team revealed Mazza was paid much more than previously known.

The Star reported that Mazza got $1 million in 2007, the second year of ORNGE's operation. But the Ontario government's so-called "sunshine list" stated Mazza got just $298,254 that year.

That's the last time Ontario taxpayers got any information about Mazza's compensation. The Starreported previously Mazza set up a series of for-profit companies that helped shield his and other executives' salaries from public disclosure and that he diverted money to them from ORNGE, which is non-profit.

[ Related: With alarm bells ringing about Ornge, McGuinty kept pressing snooze: NDP]

ORNGE, which gets about $150 million a year from the government, dodged the fresh questions raised by the accounting documents, saying in a statement "it would be inappropriate to comment on the actions of individuals who have not been affiliated with ORNGE for nearly two years," the Starsaid.

Spokesman James MacDonald said the company's current executives are "committed to transparency, accountability and respect for public dollars."

Well, that's good to know.

But the disclosures raise a question about the credibility of the public-sector salary disclosure list, which is supposed to provide taxpayers with a better picture of what top bureaucrats are earning.

Is the government reviewing whether other organizations that get government funding have not been subject to the same financial manipulations as ORNGE?

Mazza's activities at ORNGE became a major black eye for the Liberal government under then-premier Dalton McGuinty. The province began a probe last year into reports of an alleged kickback scheme involving the purchase of new helicopters and the inflated lease-back of a building it owned, inflated salaries and nepotism in hiring.

[ Related: Tories say Mazza belongs in jail, not working in hospital ]

The government was reportedly aware of the problems at ORNGE under Mazza's leadership but did nothing until stories about them broke in the media in late 2011.

The Ontario Provincial Police are conducting their own investigation into $6.7 million paid to one of Mazza's copanies from an Italian firm that sold ORNGE 12 helicopters, the Star said.

Mazza was fired in early 2012, followed by a purge of ORNGE's board of directors and executive suite.

Meanwhile, Mazza has resurfaced as an emergency-room doctor at a Thunder Bay hospital, raising more ire from the Opposition, which thinks he should be cooling his heels in jail.

Health Minister Deb Matthews said the province has no control over who hospitals hire and it's up to the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons to decide if a doctor is fit to practice medicine.

And things weren't absurd enough, Mazza is also suing his old company, claiming he's owed $1 million in unpaid bonuses, The Canadian Press reported last week.

The claim is made in a countersuit filed by Mazza against ORNGE, which has gone to court to try and recover $500,000 plus interest in a defaulted loan he got from the company in 2010 to buy a house in Toronto, CP said.

Mazza claims the money wasn't a loan at all, but an advance on unpaid bonuses from 2009 and 2010 that were part of the compensation package ORNGE's board had approved.

Source: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/ex-ornge-boss-9-3m-compensation-raises-questions-214322467.html