A Commentary by Doug Draper
So you say you want a provincial budget that takes the axe to spending? And you certainly don’t want to pay any more in the way of income taxes, do you?
A depiction of the "new" West Lincoln Memorial Hospital
So something has to give. And how about starting in Niagara with the multi-million-dollar rebuild planned for the Grimsby, Ontario-based West Lincoln Memorial Hospital, which happens to be in Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak’s riding of Niagara West-Glanbrook.
With the release of this March 27 provincial budget, the plans for a rebuild at the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital look like they are going down the drain, as are a number of other hospital and other infrastructure projects across the province. And the news about the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital rebuild – news the hospital’s CEO Vickie Baird says she was “stunned” to hear – places in jeopardy the future of one of the last smaller hospitals in this part of the province that so many people in the Grimsby, West Lincoln and Lincoln area said is providing a top quality service to anyone who goes there.
I’ve had plenty of people tell me that they would rather go there than to one of the NHS hospitals in St. Catharines, Welland or Niagara Falls. Yet, at least a few municipal leaders in the Niagara, Ontario area have wondered for two or three years now how long West Lincoln Memorial will last with the NHS building the new super hospital to the east of it in St. Catharines, and with the major hospital facilities not all that far to the west of it in Hamilton. West Lincoln Memorial may not have been part of the Niagara Health System, but it still falls under the umbrella of the provincially created Local Health Integration Network, based in Grimsby and responsible (as its name implies) for integrating health services in the Niagara, Hamilton, Halidimand, Brant areas.
In a statement released following the news in the March 27 provincial budget, Hudak said; “This is a sad day for residents in West Niagara. Local residents and businesses in our community have very generously supported this worthy (hospital rebuild) project for a very long time. There will be a lot of very disappointed people,” said Hudak, “who believed Dalton McGuinty when he said he would fund this hospital. I know the hard working, skilled staff at the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital will also be let down with this announcement.”
All that is no doubt true. But Hudak has been beating away at the McGuinty Liberal government to cut spending and at the same time cut taxes, and if you are going to do that, something has got to go. If not this hospital project, then something else that matters as much to some other community.
Unless, we are prepared to raise taxes and make cuts in areas that may not be as attractive politically – like possibly amalgamating the public and Catholic school boards and either gutting the early kindergarten program or turning it over to early childhood instructors and get the expensive teachers out of the way – then something has to give. And whatever gives, is going to upset somebody.
Yet construction on the new Niagara Health System hospital facility in west St. Catharines continues and St. Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley noted to news reporters at a local radio station this March 27 that there is no need to worry about the future of that one.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post in the comment boxes below. A reminder that NAL only posts comments by individuals who share their first and last names.)
Niagara At Large 
“A raise in income taxes would be blasphemous. It might mean that those at the higher end of the income spectrum would pay more . . . ”
Aren’t taxes raised across the board?
Should we remove the ‘Basic Exemption’ for people making more than xxx?
Should we stop indexing the ‘Basic Exemption’ to inflation (a tax increase)?
Actually, McGuinty & Duncan have brilliantly just raised ‘taxes’ -and on people at the low end as well- by raising fees on driver’s licences, etc.
-w-
The real issue is why they didn’t get a handle on Over-Spending much earlier?! Imagine if Duncan had actually Frozen government wages for even One year in his March 2009 budget. Everyone would have had more take-home pay because Harper had just brought in a January income tax cut, and the Province of Ontario would have saved Billions.
New York State has 19M people versus 13M in Ontario.
NYS deficit was $10B in 2010.
Ontario’s was $21B.
NYS politicians were fighting so madly to reduce it that their Governor threatened to -and finally did- ‘furlough’ the 100,000 NYS civil servants one day per week if his Legislature couldn’t balance their budget. (Shades of Rae Days in Ontario of the 1990s!)
McGuinty has done a few good things, but he has Not managed our grandchildren’s money (annual Deficits => the $250B+ Debt!) well at all.
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The Coverup’s of the McGuinty government would pay for a hell of a lot of this “ie” Ehealth and all the others on the list of Trough feeding’s.
We need prosecutions and recovery of those losses instead of sweeping them under the carpet. Hopefully we will have an election very soon and get rid of this blight on our society.
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I agree with you Mr. Snyder. Is there not some way we can recover funds from Orange or E-Health? People get fired for misappropriation of funds and then get million dollar buy-outs. The cushy contracts these people get should be limited to one year at a time with NO buy-out provisions. That would encourage them to do a proper and responsible job for the tax payers. If inappropriate use of funds is uncovered, such as charging consultation fees for discussing a Christmas party, those responsible should have it deducted from their own resources. It is, after all, basically theft.
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Those consulting contracts were certainly quite cushy, with millions upon millions of dollars being handed out to people who already have more than enough to do very little. What did Ontarians even gain from ORNGE, eHealth, OLG and similar scandals? The provincial government is so quick to claw back even a penny too much from those receiving OW or ODSP, yet these people are able to get away with this? They should repay every penny of this nightmare back to taxpayers..
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The people of West Niagara have raised millions of dollars on their own for that hospital. They deserve it.
Dolton McWimpy will never lower taxes. He only knows how to raise them.
He will never reduce spending our money, because he only knows how to use our money to buy votes.
He will never solve a problem, because his only solution is to ban things he doesn’t understand.
Dolton’s Lieberals deserved to be knocked out of power eight years ago. And again last October.
Ontarians don’t like to have the same party federally and provincially. Did Tim deliberately run a krappy campaign because the federal Conartists want to remain in power longer? Conspiring minds want to know.
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