OUR READERS WRITE

When elected, a government is supposed to do their best to get the job of governing done right.  We don't expect perfection, but we do expect a commitment to hard work.  The size and scope of government makes it difficult to know everything about the various files.  No one person can master the intricacies of complex files such as education and health care.  

Yet we expect Ministers to roll up their sleeves, figure out the priorities, work with the bureaucracies and do the best they can to serve the people.  Indeed, as Premier Ford likes to remind us, we taxpayers pay for these people to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.  Once elected, politicians are supposed to serve ALL of the people.

This is why the current Ford government is so disappointing.  I could raise a litany of examples where the Premier and his Ministers have dropped the ball on important issues that impact Ontarians.  I will highlight two.  

The first is education.  During the campaign, Ford said there would be no teacher layoffs.  Efficiencies would be found to reduce the education budget.  He accomplished this by cutting money to the system.  School boards had no choice but to lay off staff and reduce many programs to serve kids.  The government responded by accusing various stakeholders of fear-mongering.  They also claimed this was the normal process in the life of the school year.  In spite of what the Education Minister said, hundreds of teachers got their notice.  The government looked very bad.  

Now it appears indecisive.  As this is written, it says it will pump $1.6 billion back into education.  The devil is in the details and we will see how this helps.  Nevertheless, consider how much anguish the government has needlessly caused.  Teachers who were told they would be unemployed in June; parents who were informed programs that serve their children would be cut.  The unnecessary pain and worry is hard to understand from a government that is supposed to be for the people.

The second example is even more distressing.  Ford is suing the federal government to challenge its ability to levy a carbon tax.  It is spending at least $30 million to do so.  It is also forcing private businesses who sell gas to put a sticker on their pumps blaming the federal tax for a hike in gas prices.  All of this while doing nothing to address the most pressing issue of our times – climate change.  

While attacking the federal government for doing something substantive on climate change, we struggle through more drastic “weather events”.  Floods continue to ravage many areas of Canada.  The “once is a 1000 years” flooding in the Ottawa Valley and throughout cottage country is back, after only a few years, causing millions in damage.  

And the Ontario government sits idly by and does nothing.  It's time to call their job performance for what it is -- incompetence.  And we are all paying the price.

Mark Hauck, 

Orangeville