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Ms. Lisa MacLeod: My question is to the Premier. The McGuinty Liberals have diverted $176 million from front-line health care to salaries and administration at his unelected and unaccountable health bureaucracies known as the LHINs. In fact, in just three years the number of executives at the LHINs who earn more than $100,000 a year has more than doubled. The sunshine list for 2008 reports that Barry Monaghan made $351,000 from a LHIN he didn't even work at.
My question is a simple one: Did the Premier cancel the public review of the LHINs because his LHINs are the new all-stars in today's sunshine list?
Hon. Dalton McGuinty: To the Minister of Health.
Hon. Deborah Matthews: Once again, the members opposite continue to attack the local health integration networks. Those networks are in place to provide better care for patients. The work they do is all about improving care for patients as they transition from one part of our health care system to another part of the health care system. The work they're doing is very important for the future of our health care system and it's important for the people today who, as they go through a period of health care, would have a time when they need the intensive support available in a hospital; then there would be a time when they could use home care and other community supports. The whole goal of the LHINs is to ease that transition. It's important work, and it's important that it be done in the community.
The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Supplementary?
Ms. Lisa MacLeod: The $351,000 that Barry Monaghan scooped from the Toronto Central LHIN is the kind of severance package that an HST collector could only dream about. Over that same time frame where the 2006-07 sunshine list grew by 150%, total salaries and compensation at the LHINs grew by 213%. That doesn't even include the millions being handed out in untendered contracts and what we have now found out to be untendered contract extensions with consultants.
So my question to the Premier: How many more millions of dollars will be diverted from front-line care to pay the rich executive salaries of unelected and-
The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Thank you.
Hon. Deborah Matthews: As I said, the party opposite has a very different vision of the future of health care in this province than the people on this side. Their agenda is crystal clear: They will deny that they want to cut health care in this province, but their stated position is to freeze spending. Anyone who works in health care understands that a freeze is a cut.
Make no mistake about it: We are committed to continue to improve health care in this province, to continue to improve access, to continue to bring down wait times, to get better value for the money we spend in health care and to focus on quality. Our health care record speaks for itself, and, sadly, so does theirs.
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