For Immediate Release

April 13, 2010

News:

The Ontario PC Caucus is introducing important measures to improve accountability and transparency in government and to hold Dalton McGuinty to account for his runaway spending, wasteful scandals and untendered contracts.

Today, Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak was joined by Accountability Critic Lisa MacLeod, MPP to unveil three key accountability components including:

• Expanding the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to apply to all provincial public bodies.
• Guaranteeing full proactive disclosure of all contracts over $10,000 to apply to all provincial public bodies.
• Guaranteeing full proactive disclosure of all travel and hospitality expenses to apply to all provincial public bodies.

Lisa MacLeod, MPP will be introducing The Ontario Accountability and Transparency Act in the Legislature to put an end to the spending scandals that has spread throughout the government to eHealth Ontario, OLG, Cancer Care Ontario, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term-Care, the WSIB and the LHINs.

Quotes:

"Ontario families have had enough of these spending scandals and rich contracts to Liberal friends.  Dalton McGuinty had his chance to clean up his messes and failed so the Ontario PC Caucus will do the job for him."

-- Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

"These are practical and constructive measures that would increase transparency throughout the public sector, shed sunlight on the darkest corners of Dalton McGuinty's government, and restore the public's confidence that the government does - in fact - work for them."

-- Lisa MacLeod, Ontario PC MPP for Nepean - Carleton and Critic for Revenue and Accountability

• A total of $3.6 billion dollars has been wasted during Dalton McGuinty's eHealth, the Windsor Energy Centre, the WSIB, MPAC, OLG, Mike Colle, Cancer Care Ontario, Samsung, Ontario Works, the ODSP, LHINs and HST tax collector scandals.

• Dalton McGuinty's June 17, 2009 promise to end sole-sourced contracts was exposed through untendered contracts at Casino Niagara, the Windsor Energy Centre and the LHINs.

• On Dalton McGuinty's September 14, 2009 broken promise to force Ontario Agencies, Boards and Commissions to post their expenses online was undermined by the fact that more than 580 Ontario Agencies Boards and Commissions remain exempt.

• On Dalton McGuinty's October 19^th, 2009 promised to stop hiding the six figured salaries of his health officials in hospital budgets but was exposed by hiding LHIN salaries in hospital budgets.

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Backgrounder

Ontario PC Caucus Accountability and Transparency Measures

Today at Queen's Park, Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak and Lisa MacLeod, MPP and Critic for Accountability introduced the following accountability measures.  Lisa MacLeod will be introducing The Ontario Accountability and Transparency Act in the Legislature next week. Measures of the Act will include:

• Expand Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to apply to all provincial public bodies

FOI powers will apply to all provincial organizations, including all hospitals, agencies, boards, and commissions.  Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner has repeatedly called for expanded FOI access to all ABCs in every annual report since 2004: "Institutions that are primarily funded by government dollars should be covered by Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy legislation for the purposes of transparency and accountability. "

British Columbia's FOI laws already apply to all records in the custody or under the control of a public body, including hospitals.

• Full proactive disclosure of contracts over $10,000 in value to apply to all provincial public bodies

All provincial public bodies that grant contracts on behalf of the province will post all contracts over $10,000 on their website, to be updated quarterly.  The disclosure will include the recipient of the contract, a reference number, the value of the contract, the date awarded, a brief description of the project, the contract period, and the delivery date.

The disclosure will also include a specific section that records a ‘Yes' or a ‘No' response for whether the contract was delivered "On time and on budget."  If the response is No, then a full explanation must be provided in a comments section explaining why the contract was not delivered on time and on budget.

The Government of Canada announced a new policy on the mandatory publication of contracts over $10,000 (updated every 3 months) in 2004.  David Cameron's UK Conservatives are proposing disclosure in full of government contracts worth over £25,000, including all performance indicators, break clauses, and penalty measures.

• Full proactive disclosure of all travel and hospitality expenses to apply to all provincial public bodies

All provincial public bodies will disclose all travel and hospitality expenses on their website, to be updated quarterly. The disclosure will include the name of the individual, total dollar value of the expenses, the date of the expenses, destination of travel, and the purpose of the expense.  The disclosure will also include an itemized breakdown of the following expenses:

o        Mode of travel expensed

o        Accommodations

o        Meals and incidentals

o        Any other expenses

On September 14, 2009, Dalton McGuinty announced that expenses for OPS senior management, cabinet ministers, political staff, and senior executives only at Ontario's 22 largest agencies will be posted online (no later than April 1, 2010). There are over 600 agencies to which the provincial government makes appointments, according to the Ontario Public Appointments Secretariat.