The NDP are calling the McGuinty government to task after the Auditor General’s recent report that suggests there is little to show for the $1 billion spent on creating an electronic health records system.
It is a damning indictment the government that has squandered precious health-care dollars, says NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.
During question period on Oct. 7, Horwath set her sights squarely on Premier Dalton McGuinty and his role in the scandal that has consumed Ontario politics for the past six months. The report pinned the blame for the eHealth debacle on McGuinty’s government.
"The Auditor General found that the money went out the door with little to show for it," says Horwath. "How could Dalton McGuinty have allowed this to happen? He was either wilfully negligent on this file or incredibly incompetent."
Horwath lamented how the squandered $1-billion could have been used to improve Ontario’s healthcare system.
"One billion dollars could have funded 11,250 full-time nurses, 34-million home care visits, 24,000 long term care beds or 2,500 doctors and specialists. It also could have easily wiped away the $350-million deficit that hospitals across Ontario are tackling by cutting services," she said.
The Auditor General’s report found the McGuinty government awarded 485 of the 486 consulting contracts uncovered by the report and consultants were paid $300 per hour for editing voice-mail greetings and writing thank-you letters.
"Ministers can come and go, but at the end of day, what we see here is an arrogant, out-of-touch McGuinty government that has lost its way," says Horwath. "The report makes that perfectly clear."
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