A Commentary by Preston Haskell
Same scenario, same politician, same snafu!
Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews batles Ornge air ambulance spending controversy
Anybody remember the Niagara health care service debacle? Anybody? Well surprise!
We have another ‘Big budget’, Ontario government controlled, (accountable to no one) bureaucracy, complete with overpaid, dictatorial officials making investments on the side into private enterprises.
No, it’s not the Niagara Health System this time. It’s not the Niagara Parks Commission. It’s not even the Machiavellian machinations of the Niagara regional government. This time the same scenario is being played out under the heading of ‘Ornge’ or formerly, The Ontario Air Ambulance service.
And who has stepped forward claiming that she will fix the ‘Ornge’ problem? Why, none other than the same person that jumped in to fix the NHS debacle! Yes, you guessed it! The hero of the NHS debacle is our very own Deb Matthews who, as Ontario’s health minister, now vows to fix the same scenario involving yet another Ontario government mess.
Under the supervision and husbandry of taxpayer money our illustrious Ontario government officials allowed the mismanagement of ‘Ornge’ to sink to such a level as to culminate into criminal proceedings.
Some are saying that ‘Ornge’ is private enterprise predicated on the fact that they have their own board of directors. This could have merit but only if ‘Ornge’ wasn’t on the Ontario government payroll.
Some are saying that $150 million of hard earned taxpayer dollars demands better oversight by the ‘government in charge’. No Kidding!
Some are even saying that the Ontario government might have to send in another government person to sugar-coat yet another government dereliction of duty.
Some say that ‘Ornge’ is non-profit. Every enterprise, private or public, is non-profit if the enterprise pays out what would have been profit, to those running the enterprise!
It would appear that the only real solution is the spectre of prison time for the people in charge of government enterprises who have lied, deliberately mislead, and misused their position of trust.
But not in Ontario! Oh, no! Our clever Ontario government wizards simply bestow huge golden parachutes on THEIR fellow bureaucrats who have only succeeded in orchestrating ‘failure’.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post in the comment boxes below. Please remember that NAL does not post anonymous comments or comments by people using pseudonyms. Only comments attached to real names work here.)
Niagara At Large 
There should also be penalties for incompetent cabinet ministers who don’t bother to oversee what was going on at Ornge. That illustrious minister would be none other than the very one who now vows to clean up the mess. Even former Health Minister George Smitherman, under whom Ornge was initially set up, has taken aim at Matthews for dereliction of duty. Admittedly, Smitherman’s finger-pointing smacks of hypocrisy considering the $1 billion eHealth debacle occurred under his watch. (And he didn’t have to take the hit for this; it was left to David Caplan to take the bullet for Smitherman.) This is also the same minister who started cracking down on legitimate pain patients this past fall punishing them for those who’ve abused prescription painkillers all while ignoring the unacceptably high addiction levels in Northern Ontario despite pleas from Native chiefs for the last two years, at least, for help with the problem. What happened to the concept of ‘ministerial responsibility’? Seems McGuinty only applies this to certain ministers.
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George Smitherman , Dalton McGuinty’s prize Minister, who left behind a stinking pile of wreckage after leaving every portfolio he administered, literally billions of dollars down a sink hole, no wonder the people of Toronto wanted nothing to do with his campaign to run for Mayor of Toronto.Dalton McGuinty has blinders on when he appoints this walking cyclone to a Ministry.I have never in my whole life, seen the likes of such utter incompetance which colours the obtuseness of our Premier.Oliver Cromwell who in no uncertain words castigated the Parliament of his day, and literally gave those bums the boot.Where is the modern day savior of our government? we don’t have one.ORNGE sounds like de-vu kick backs for helicopter contracts from an Italian helicopter , too small and cramped to do life saving procedures on patients, and why were no helicopters purchased from the assembly plant in Fort Erie ,Eurocopter?this is a relplay of Brian Mulroney.this crisis should be hung around Daltons neck, the buck stops with him.
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A couple of points for consideration:
1. The underlying foundation of this health care fiasco is that the government, with a neo-liberal agenda of privatization, is deliberately setting the system up for failure so that they can promote P3 hospitals, and insurance company intrusions into health care. We are going to end up with more privatized health care,It will be inefficient, and it will cost the citizens and the provincial treasury a fortune. The intent of the Drummond report was to instill fear in the public so that this underlying agenda can be imposed.
2. Another position regarding ORNGE would be that it shows the failure of the public service to be run by corporations.
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Labeling everything neo-liberal or neo-con is neolithic socialist speak for not wishing to call this what it really is gross incompetence bordering on criminal.
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Call it a rose or a pink Cadillac if you wish. If you don’t like socialism, you don’t have to worry, because we are living in a corporatocracy. I’d rather live in a social democracy than a corporatocracy myself, especially since the health care would be far superior.
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Government mismanagement is alive and well in Ontario
According to Andrea Horwath, our hero of the NHS, Deb Mathews, ignored the ‘Ornge Debacle’ for over a year!
Apparently she had been well informed but sat by as things at ‘Ornge’ deteriorated.
Now, following a full expose’ of another government snafu, our Premier Dalton McGuinty comes out with a scolding of the ‘Ornge’ Executives. McGuinty says the executives of ‘Ornge’ let everyone, including him, down.
Premier McGuinty, predicated on the fact that both you and your minister sat buy while this debacle continued should you not realize that you and your government also failed us! At what point do you admit that once again you have allowed an Ontario agency to run amuck. These government agencies might think they rule the roost here in Ontario, but they don’t.
Mr. McGuinty, do the citizens have to remind you that you are our Premier and that it is you we look to for protection from wrongdoers.
Premier McGuinty, keep Mathews on if you wish but please understand that it is you that has let us down.
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http://thepatientfactor.com/canadian-health-care-information/world-health-organizations-ranking-of-the-worlds-health-systems/
WHO healthcare rankngs:
France : 1
Italy: 2
Canada : 30
U.S.A : 37
Cuba: 39
Studying the list may help us understand what works and what doesn’t
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The report above was published in 2000, with source data from 1997, so it is dated. Not sure if there is anything more recent.
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Maybe the people who are responsible for these fiascos, such as the CEO and other senior staff that benefited from the public largesse should pay it all back. After all, if one is on ODSP or welfare, if one gets even a single penny too much, it gets clawed back immediately. The same standards need apply here as well.
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Once Again – WE ELECTED THESE IDIOTS _ DO your complaining at the voting booth – A system change is the only way to hold these people or those who replace them accountable. Eliminate political parties and institute Recall – The way the system is now once the rush to the trough (election) is over they go to parliament and do what the party leaders tell them to do and to hell with the rest of you.!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I wonder how much this ORNGE P3 fiasco will cost the public treasury.
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The government is at fault for outsourcing public health care to the private sector. The air ambulance should be run and operated by the government, for the people.
Another example: The government is moving towards P3 models of health care, as we know. For-profit hospitals cost the government treasury more– by about 18%. The evidence is irrefutable.
The private sector does not belong in health care.
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Where is your evidence Mr. Taliano? Perhaps you should check your premises.
Surely you cannot be satisfied with the status quo in our Ontario health care! Almost everything under the control of the Ontario government has run the gamut from poor to downright disastrous and informed citizens know it.
I for one cannot favour any hard and fast ideology if that ridiculous ideology places Canada BEHIND 29 other countries in health care.
Your repeated comments against anything in the private sector seem to be flawed in light of your February 23, 2012 rant that ‘The government is at fault for outsourcing public health care to the private sector. Could it be possible that you have a vested interest in our health care being run by the government? You should be happy then predicated on the fact that our Ontario health care IS run by the Ontario government.
The nations ahead of Canada on the WHO survey do operate under some hybrid health system balancing the best that both public and privately run health care. These hybrid systems DO NOT increase cost to their treasuries and they are bringing their citizens benefits.
Your comment that ‘the air ambulance should be run and operated by the government, for the people’ brings up the question as to which corporation you think has been running our Ontario Air Ambulance service, also known as Ornge.
In answer to your question; this government agency called Ornge and its failure through government mismanagement is costing our treasury a kind’s ransom.
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Walkom: “Why Ontario’s bid to cut health care costs could backfire” January 24, 2012
” ‘Eight separate empirical studies compared for-profit and non-profit hospitals,’ Woolhandler says. ‘All showed that for-profit hospitals cost the government treasury more — by about 18%. The evidence of higher cost is simply irrefutable,’ she says.”
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The Liberal party applauds Deb Mathews, because she’s taking the heat for their policies.
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Everyone in France is insured by a national healthcare program. An important fact is that they also rate at the top with “avoidable hospitalizations”, meaning they care for health conditions before hosptalization is needed (thus saving patients/humans AND money).
Health spending in France as a percentage of G.D.P in 2008, with everyone covered (unlike the U.S or even Canada) is 11.2 in France, and 16.0 in the U.S. And yet Canada is moving towards the privatized model, similar to the U.S.
Source: globalhealthfacts.org/
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