Posted by Ian:
A rebuttal to PC leader Tim Hudak from Julie White, representing the South West LHIN, on improving the healthcare system. Read the full document here. South West LHIN provides facts on improving the health care system
The Tim Hudak posting can be found here
Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak Wednesday called for the end to Local Health Integration Networks, the agencies set up by the McGuinty government in 2006 to allocate provincial health dollars on a regional basis.
At a news conference in front of Victoria Hospital, Hudak called LHIN’s a “bloated bureaucracy” that costs money that should go to front-line health care.
Tim Hudak and the Ontario PC Caucus will introduce a motion in the Ontario Legislature today calling on the McGuinty Government to restore planning authority to Ontario municipalities so that no industrial wind farm can be imposed on a community that does not want one.
Dalton McGuinty’s so-called ‘Green Energy Act’ allows the Toronto based energy bureaucrats at the Ontario Power Authority to arbitrarily place industrial wind farms anywhere in Ontario regardless of the views of the democratically elected local governments.
Municipalities across Ontario have expressed economic and environmental concerns about the wind farms that are being forced upon them under Dalton McGuinty’s so-called ‘Green Energy Act’.
Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak is calling on all Liberal Government members to support the motion and give back municipal governments’ ability to decide what is best for their own community.
Quotes:
“Dalton McGuinty’s so-called ‘Green Energy’ scheme will force Ontario families to pay more for industrial wind farms over which they have no control. This has little to do with the environment and everything to do with rewarding Dalton McGuinty’s friends at Samsung.”
— Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak
“If Dalton McGuinty’s plan for placing industrial wind farms in the backyards of Ontario communities was as popular as he pretends it is, he should not be afraid of supporting our PC motion and, once again, allowing Ontario municipalities to have their say.”
— Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak
Quick Facts:
– Schedule A of the Green Energy Act empowers the McGuinty Government
to overrule municipal by-laws and local concerns when locating
industrial wind farms.
– Municipalities across Ontario have passed resolutions expressing
significant concerns regarding the economic and environmental impact
of industrial wind turbine technology being forced on them through
the ‘Green Energy Act’.
For further information: Christine Bujold, (416) 325-1330, christine.bujold@pc.ola.org
Tax rate decreases by 2.06%, however impact on individual properties will vary due to reassessment. Summary can be found here. Budget 2010
Posted by Ian:
The overtime in this case is not the NHL or NBA playoffs, but instead the generous overtime payouts at Elgin St. Thomas Public Health.
Cynthia St. John
She advised Elgin County council a portion of that raise was due to overtime she accumulated during the H1N1 outbreak. She would like us to believe that must be taken into consideration when talking about her 2009 salary of $150,075, up from $123,627 in 2008.
The obvious talking point here is, why is the CEO entitled to overtime in the first place?
Now we find reaping the benefits of overtime apparently is not limited to the CEO, as two other managers appear to have benefitted from the swine flu scare.
Neither Carolyn Kuntz nor Laura McLachlin were members of the $100,000 Sunshine Club in 2008, yet lo and behold their 2009 salaries were an identical $114,221. That’s a tidy increase of at least 14%.
Nothing like the threat of a pandemic to boost salaries at a fevered pitch.
If Cynthia’s overtime rationale holds true, can we expect the salaries of all three individuals to drop substantially this year with no overtime to pad the total?
And why has no member of St. Thomas council cornered chairman Bill Aarts in open session for clarification of the comings and goings at this publicly-funded body?
There’s plenty of blame to share between Elgin St. Thomas Public Health and St. Thomas council.
Full transcript from segment of Dan Reith’s Politically Speaking taped in early April dealing with $40,000 community improvement loan received by mayoral candidate Mark Cosens.
Dan Reith: “Yourself or a company controlled by you received a $40,000 community improvement loan from the city which, subsequent to the bankruptcy filing, still remains outstanding and owing to the city. Is that true?”
Mark Cosens:”That is something I’m really not able to talk to in a sense it wasn’t a decision I made. It was a decision made by the city, without my involvement in that decision and I don’t think that’s something that can be held against me for running for mayor because of that.
“It’s something that hasn’t been fully disclosed at this point in time either. So, that may get cleared up as well. At this point in time, It’s hard to say what that might do to my bid.”
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In what surely has to be one of the oddest television interview segments in some time, Dan Reith, host of Politically Speaking, sat opposite Mark Cosens earlier this month and deftly forced the mayoral wannabe into damage control mode.
The bombshell question from Reith that had Cosens backpedaling furiously came right out of left field, as follows.
“Yourself, or a company controlled by you, received a $40,000 community improvement loan from the city which, subsequent to the bankruptcy filing, still remains outstanding and owing to the city. Is that true?”
What followed is nothing short of a Gray Line Mystery Tour, starting with this opening rebuttal from Cosens.
“That is something I’m really not able to talk to in a sense it wasn’t a decision I made. It was a decision made by the city, without my involvement in that decision and I don’t think that’s something that can be held against me for running for mayor because of that.
“It’s something that hasn’t been fully disclosed at this point in time either. So, that may get cleared up as well. At this point in time, it’s hard to say what that might do to my bid.”
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With less than a dozen interested spectators in the gallery, Central Elgin council presents a united voice in Port Stanley harbour divestiture. Harbour Acceptance of Offer April 23, 2010
It seems an apology, of sorts, is in order after heaping praise last week on Cynthia St. John for shedding light on the dismissal of four employees in March.
However, this week, we have reason to believe the executive director isn’t exactly being up front about the comings and goings at Elgin St. Thomas Public Health.
To refresh, this corner passed along details of a media release sent our way explaining the background to the 2010 budget and the resultant staff reduction of 3.45 full-time employees.
Let’s just clarify things a tad.
Seems the four employees originally discussed in City Scope are a separate issue from the above employees, who were laid off in the past couple of weeks.
A topic of discussion yet to be dealt with by St. John.
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Ian's City Scope 