MACLEOD QUESTIONS PREMIER OVER EHEALTH PDF Print E-mail
Friday, 11 December 2009 16:44

Ontario Hansard - 20-October2009


Ms. Lisa MacLeod: My question is to the Premier of Ontario. An auditor's report into the waste of taxpayer dollars by Liberals said, "We are disturbed not only by the widespread circumvention of the competitive ... process ... but also by the fact that this was permitted to occur at all."

This Premier says he accepts the Provincial Auditor's report in its totality, so he should be able to tell us, did this criticism come from Sheila Fraser's report on the sponsorship scandal or did it come from the Provincial Auditor's report on the McGuinty Liberals eHealth scandal?


Hon. Dalton McGuinty: I'm not sure what the point of this question is, and I have not memorized the report word for word, but I can say, as I've said before, that we accept every finding. We will adopt every single recommendation put forward by the auditor. We think it was thorough. We think his response was perfectly appropriate in the circumstances, and that's why we're going to move ahead with all of his recommendations.

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Supplementary.

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: The Premier remembers one quote in a 48-page document, but the previous quote is from the federal auditor's report on the sponsorship scandal. But the Provincial Auditor said, "Sound and reasonable policies were in place to ensure that all suppliers could compete fairly ... but all too often the rules were not followed."

Which level of government this auditor was criticizing doesn't really matter, and it hasn't really changed. How can one auditor's findings lead to the Gomery inquiry while the other's leads to Premier McGuinty hiding what Minister Smitherman and his McGuinty Liberals have done to hide and waste one billion in taxpayer dollars?


Hon. Dalton McGuinty: It's not too hard to figure out what the opposition is doing-Gomery, the sponsorship scandal, and let's see what we can do to link eHealth into that.

We have an objective third party who's intervened in this matter: the Provincial Auditor. I would encourage my colleague to review that report again and again and again to come to fully understand the advice to be found therein, and to accept, as we do, the recommendations put forward by the auditor, which is why we'll be moving forward on each and every one of those.