Reality bites when it comes to health care spending in Ontario - let's figure it out before it's too late

It's about time that organizations in the health care continuum stand up and tell the McGuinty government that enough is enough. After nearly a decade of criticizing the Conservative government for the way it handled its affairs, the leader who asked us to 'choose change' implemented a new health tax and came up with a new bureaucracy to manage its proceeds. We were told by Opposition Leader McGuinty that closing hospital beds and amalgamating organizations was not acceptable. Yet, that is precisely what the new Premier and his "Local Health Integration Networks" across the province essentially advocate years into the "change" for which Ontarians got suckered into voting into power.

I had to leave my career in the sector after twelve years because I could not take it anymore. Anyone who cared more about those needing the service of our health care system would be shunned and stonewalled by the "new" government and, here in Ottawa, by Dr. Robert Cushman as they were fed a steady diet of "needing to find efficiencies" to the point that the LHIN allocated $100,000 or more on computers and programs for area home support agencies while these same agencies were denied requests for a few thousand dollars for day programs for seniors or respite services for harried caregivers of ailing seniors or Alzheimer's patients. Untold millions were spent over the years on new staff dedicated to overseeing how hospitals, CCAC's, community health centres or home support agencies could discover 'efficiencies' after being victims of funding freezes through the early 1990's, increases below the rate of inflation in the 2000's, all while the population aged and grew by leaps and bounds year after after year. For the larger hospitals, I'm sure more than a million dollars have been spent in Ottawa alone to study studies while people waited and waited for desperately needed medical attention.

It's one thing to seek efficiencies, but it's another thing to be blind to the fact that a growing and aging population will simply cost hospitals, CCAC's and home support agencies more as the demand for their services continue to grow. It isn't 1978 or 2002 anymore, Mr. Premier.

Our governments need to plan today to head problems they seem to be creating for tomorrow. We no longer have a population of 300,000 in the City of Ottawa yet we are expected to figure out how to provide medical service to three times as many people with fewer and fewer "real dollars" as each year passes. If they don't rectify the problem today, the problem will increase in size exponentially in the next fifteen years. Most governments don't plan that far ahead, but we'll never get anywhere when it comes to having manageable hospital budgets if we do not factor in basic realities. It's time to wake up, Mr. Premier, before it is too late. Where are those health tax dollars going? New buildings are nice but give those who run those buildings the dollars to operate in them!!

Clive Doucet doesn't return Greenberg's calls - will he answer my e-mail?

It's starting to look, reading local newspapers, that Councillor Clive Doucet is developping a reputation for refusing to speak to or interact with people who sit on the "other side of the fence". With everything going on lately (Lansdowne, green bin, budget, etc.) I thought I would try again to introduce myself to my "new" councillor. I e-mailed his office last spring and got a quick response from an assistant, but I thought that in a time where the councillor who knows what's best for everyone, he might relish the opportunity to try and turn me around.

An e-mail was sent almost a week ago and with public consultations on Lansdowne having come and gone, I wonder if my thoughts sent prior to the meetings on Laurier have met deaf ears or not. Here's what I had to say... will I get a response? I hope so. If I do, an update will be posted. This Council seems to be getting out of hand - and nobody seems to be able to do anything about it.

Councillor Doucet,

I realize that I am not likely to get a sympathetic response from you but I have been around municipal politics for long enough that I know that I don’t want you to be able to say you “didn’t get any constituent response on this subject”.

Several years ago I e-mailed Council as a whole, irritated about the newly-discovered ‘tactic’ of moving things “out” of the property tax bill and “in” the new budget as a “user fee”. This shell game has been a favoured ploy of Council ever since. I really resent this new green bin program and further resent being forced to pay a “user fee” for a program I will not be using.

So many Councillors have been around for so many years I am shocked that I have not heard one member of Council stand up and remind newer members of the last attempt from the City to divert “organic waste” from our landfills. Do you not remember when the City handed out big brown compost bins to be used by citizens in their own yards? After that one time investment, the cost of that program to the City was ZERO. Most people I know still use that system. The City has been so keen on “educating” constituents since amalgamation, so I can’t help but wonder why it decided to spend so much money on something like this when it could have reminded people they could ‘recycle their organic waste’ in their own back yards. Oh, and at the same time that the City has been spending money on planning and implementing this green bin program it has also been working with Plasco, a far more effective way to divert waste from dumps. But I digress.

Can you assure me and every other resident of your ward that the other new “user fee” (for the blue and black boxes we’ve been paying for in property taxes for as long as I can remember the program being in place) will be offset by an equal reduction in the property tax bill? Somehow I doubt this, because this new “user fee” would then be revenue neutral, thereby likely negating the purpose of bringing this new “user fee” into place. Am I being too cynical on this subject? I’m just asking for honesty here.

Finally, on the subject of the revitalization of Lansdowne: while I do not support your position on the matter, I would ordinarily unconditionally support your decision to speak out on it. I do have to say, Councillor, that I would expect more from a man of your age, wisdom and experience. Using sandbox tactics and acting in a manner more becoming of a selfish teenager is not one that is likely to bring people onto your side. If you would use tact, maturity and logical arguments, I might come to understand your point of view and adopt it as my own. I once thought that the local media distorted their coverage of yourself and your office, but far too much time has gone by that I no longer can give them the benefit of the doubt.

I have listened to “anti-Lansdowne Live” arguments and I have listened to those from the Greenberg group. It is fascinating to listen to those opposed continually use the same arguments over and over again despite having their distorted view corrected with fact time after time after time. Consulting documents provided at consultations and at meetings make me wonder how it is that intelligent humans continue to mis-interpret and single out falsehoods in an attempt to use scare tactics in the hopes to have wide-spread support for their dissent.

Why do I support the redevelopment as it is? You may tell me that I am not a resident of the Glebe on Plymouth Street, but I do consider myself as being on the fringe. For groceries I currently travel to College Square, Richmond/Kirkwood or Vanier… the main reason for this is that the two grocery stores in the Glebe are very inaccessible for those who drive cars (it’s impossible to bring $300 of groceries home on your favoured bicycles or busses, Mr. Doucet) and the one on Isabella (not sure if it’s in your ward) is too small, doesn’t offer the variety other stores offer and, frankly, is too old.

I walk to the Home Hardware on Bank/2^nd Avenue regularly. I do not travel outside of my community for that kind of purchase. I would love to be able to go to Lansdowne and pick up groceries, watch a movie or a sporting event – all things available to me as a local resident if and when the current plan goes ahead. Those who have determined that the redevelopment will encourage more people to shop in their neighbourhood are correct. I know I will. However, until that happens, I will continue to spend thousands of dollars in Vanier, Westboro or near the old Nepean City Hall as they all are more convenient despite the somewhat significant time that must be spent getting to and from those locations.

Finally, I fail to understand how people seem so keen to cry wolf every time something new is around the corner. People said Westboro would die when Loblaws redeveloped the site at Richmond/Kirkwood – quite the contrary – it has flourished and is now an area that rivals Bank Street in atmosphere and diversity. Look at what the Palladium did for west Kanata!

You really want to be “progressive”, Councillor? Don’t stand in the way – work CONSTRUCTIVELY to shape progress into a way more acceptable for you (and in Lansdowne’s case, NOT AS A USELESS GREEN SPACE!) and the silent majority that always falls victim to a very small but very vocal miniority.

You are one of the most intelligent members of Council, Sir. Remember that the next time a camera is in front of you. One last thing… I see that you and your office has refused to meet with the very man who could make changes to Lansdowne plans that might be supported by yourself. Why is that?

I hope that you take the time to, at the least, send me a one-lined response to this correspondence from one of your constituents. It would be much more appreciated and show a sign of good faith outside of an election period than my being sent a “thanks for your views, they’ll be forwarded to the Councillor” from one of your assistants…

With great respect,

Michael Mason

[Edit - as of Christmas Eve, the last day mail was delivered as of right now, no response from Councillor Doucet by e-mail or Canada Post... so if my experience is at all similar to Mr. Greenberg's assertions ON THE RECORD that The Councillor was refusing to take his calls are any indication, Mr. Doucet is only likely to get back to people who support his position. Time will tell, but I fear that as has been the case with many who came before him, I may only hear from him if he declares his intentions to run again in 2010. I might have supported him if he gave the faintest of possibilities he was listening and acknowledging dissenting views from his constituents.]

"It becomes a separate tax... that can be raised..."

Thanks, Councillor Rick Chiarelli.

So our fine not-so-feathered friends at Ottawa City Hall are looking at raising property taxes by about 6% this year. I shouldn't single out Rick, as he was likely one of the few (aside from Alex Cullen, but maybe he's out of town) who would stick his neck out to get chopped off in front of local TV cameras... but I just did.

They want to "introduce" yet another annual user fee for recycling we've been paying for for years ($41) and another for the organic recycling ($68). Are any of us stupid enough to believe that tax bills will be lowered by $41 when this "new" user fee is added to the so-called utility bill? Yeah, and pigs fly.

I wrote in the past about this ridiculous shell game scam these politicians have been putting on at our expense, year after year after year. So the goal is 6% this year. Does this mean that net disbursements from residential taxpayers will be 6% higher than last year? Are you nuts? Of course not! They never are. Those "invisible" user fees keep getting jacked up, but we don't see that at budget time. When Council rises and toasts itself for another job "well done", settling for yet another tax hike, they quietly look the other way while the price of doing everything at the city goes up by 5, 10, 15, 20 or 50%... sometimes more.

After spending twelve years working for an autonomous organization operating in a city-owned building, watching as the price of everything went up while quality of service (anyone who has watched the quality of work contracted cleaning companies, for example, go down the tubes because of one reason or another - accountability to the signed contract be damned for one...) got worse and worse... I couldn't take it anymore. The problem? Neither elected officials, nor bureaucrats whose job it was to monitor the contractors ever seemed to care.

The bottom line seems to be, thanks to bad tax policy almost 20 years ago now, we keep paying more and keep getting less. If this organic recycling project is so expensive, turf the damn thing until we can afford to implement it. When times are tough, you don't set out to find new things to spend money on. I want to opt out of this latest fad, but a green box was dropped off last week. I have put it in the back - it won't see the light of day again. I still believe in the city's last attempt at dealing with yard waste - anyone remember the big brown compost bins the city gave out years and years ago?

City Council seems to spend more and more year after year... raising our taxes year after year... and we keep putting up with it, re-electing the same people election after election. We tried electing a new mayor last time around - but without electing new councillors, one person cannot turn things around on his own.

Will we ever learn? I don't think so.

PC police strike again - can't anyone take a joke anymore?

Cheers! Coors Light is getting thousands of dollars in unexpected free publicity thanks to what is likely less than a handful of sour pusses who just can't take a joke.

I could almost understand those who complained about Ottawa Virgin Radio's ad campaign a while back... but what do you expect from this sort of station? Whatever happened to "if you don't like it, change the channel", can someone explain that to me? But this?

Thirty. Thirty billboards throughout British Columbia extolling the greatness of Coors Light beer and playing on a never ending east-west (or west-east?) rivalry (remember "SOUTH SIDE SUCKS!" from Ottawa Rough Rider games?) How offensive were these billboards? Here's the text: "Coors Light - colder than most people from Toronto".

Had I driven or walked past one of those billboards I would have laughed to myself and possibly even shaken my head, thinking about how brilliant this simple ad is because it made me (a non-beer drinker) pay attention... in which case the ad did its job.

But nooooooooo... some politically correct idio... I mean individuals complained and as seems to be the case each and every time these years, the big and mighty conglomerate bowed down and opted to pull the billboards down.

Why must we bow down to the individual soul each and every time someone gets "offended"? I mean, I know we're not allowed to make fun of Torontonians here in Ottawa due to a special bylaw authored by Alex Cullen (joke, folks), but it's open season everywhere else in Canada. With all these new Canadians coming over without knowing the first thing about our culture year after year, a whole new phobia of offending anyone has taken us over. Funny thing, though, how I as an individual don't seem to have the right to be offended by the fact that they're offended. That's just not politically correct.

Anyway... on behalf of planet earth and its surrounding moon, I apologize to the (likely) six people across the country who were offended by the funny ad. I do not apologize for thinking that it was funny. That, you call can stick in your ear.

Laugh a little - it'll do you some good!

Oh boy - court says we MUST bring Khadr back!

Bleeding hearts rejoice - "accused" terrorist Omar Khadr must be repatriated. One must love our court system. Can't we repatriate and DEPORT? If scum decides to commit illegal act on foreign soil, shouldn't we let the foreign country deal with said scum? Apparently not.

Come on back "home" little Omar... apparently we want you here. O Canada. Who, again, stands on guard for us? Not our court system, evidently. Oh yeah, I know, bleeding hearts, he was born here. But what was he doing in Afghanistan shooting it out with the US Army, lobbing grenades at a medic? But he's a mis-understood angel. Right.

Would we have been so quick to jump to the defence of the "Canadian" son of a Nazi who had flown to Europe and fight against his country's allies in World War II? Somehow, I don't think so. That is why I am having such a hard time understanding why any Canadian would so adamantly support the concept of bringing an "accused" terrorist, the prodigal son of such a great Canadian family.

I know we can't deport the guy, but must we spend hundreds of thousands if not into the millions of dollars to bring this model citizen back?

We have much more important things to do with our tax dollars. Fortunately, it looks like the federal government will die trying to ensure justice for all. When did "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" see an untimely death? Surely this would be a shining example of this old adage.

Come on, Prime Minister Harper - appeal this decision to the Supreme Court!

CTV "unfair and unethical": Canadian Broadcast Standards Council

Lowell Green has to be running head first into his brick wall today.

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled that CTV was "unfair and unethical" when they aired that now infamous Stephane Dion interview. A Canwest News Service report states that the CBSC claims that "a poorly framed question that Dion didn't understand was confusing and that CTV was wrong to broadcast the outtakes after promising the Liberals not to do so."

I personally don't understand why CTV would have promised not to air the interview. Surely the promise came after some senior aide, knowing it would make the "leader" look like a second rate hack, begged to have the tape burned and tossed out.

The question that caused the former Liberal party leader to blunder so badly is the following: "If you were prime minister now, what would you have done about the economy and this crisis that Mr. Harper has not done?"

Would the CBSC kindly explain what exactly is confusing about this question? Sure, the grammar isn't spot on, but come on... it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand it, does it?
It seems that all opposition parties do these days criticize, bringing little substance to the table. They yell as loud as they can about how bad the other side is... yet do little to show what they would do differently. Given this, how can Mr. Murphy's question be confusing? All he did was ask Dion if he were PM, what would be do that the other guy hasn't. Not once, not twice... you know the rest of it.

The fact that this national party leader was (supposedly) unable to understand the question IS news. I would argue that it was CTV's DUTY to air a story about it.

Anybody with a basic understanding of the English knowledge and with a basic understanding of the job description of an opposition party leader (at the least, the part of the job conducted in front of the media) should have been able to put two and two together and understand the question. "You're so smart, what would you have done?" That's what it boils down to. Some argue he didn't understand the so-called poorly framed question because English is his second language. Isn't it convenient? Accuse the big bad media guy of being anti-French and watch the knee-jerk reactions start.

That's the new Canadian way.

A good lawyer will never ask a question in open court to which he doesn't know the answer. Dion pounded Harper for weeks about how he dealt with the rapidly sinking economy. Was it such a stretch to expect someone to ask what he would do, he who is so critical of the other guy during an election campaign?

Apparently it was. CTV was "unfair". If Dion, the Liberals and small-l liberals in Canada can't take the heat, they shouldn't thrust themselves into the spotlight. Dion proved he couldn't handle it over and over again. Get over it, it's over. Let's see if the new guy is any better.

And let's let broadcasters and journalists do their jobs, shall we?

My thoughts - sent to a member of the Ontario Legislature

I couldn't hold back any longer. Here is an edited version of a letter I sent to an Ottawa MPP who I respect as an individual but have a hard time swallowing his or her being part of a government that has stepped back from its own ideals time and time again... to the detriment of each and every Ontarian.

Had I known that helping get you elected as a member of a majority government would result in what has come down over the years, I would never have agreed to support your nomination. You were (and remain) far too valuable an asset to the community to end up being a puppet who is forced to nod and shake your head on cue when the leader of your party speaks.

What this Liberal government has done to the health care continuum in Ontario is laudable in some respects – the cranes in the ground in the Ottawa area are definitely numerous – but is for the most part reprehensible. Despite repeated efforts to cut down wait times, the line keeps growing for MRI’s in Ottawa. Newspapers have documented over and over again that the time one has to wait for certain forms of “elective” surgery (as if someone “elects” to walk properly) keeps growing. What good comes from putting up buildings without putting dollars into the budgets to efficiently make use of those buildings never come? I’m not talking LHIN efficient, I’m talking let’s fund the use of that new MRI machine 24 hours a day… or let’s fund the use of the new operating rooms at the Queensway Carleton Hospital 24 hours a day – your waiting lists will soon disappear! Well that’s not what Dr. Cushman has accomplished in this part of the province!

The “new Liberal government” screwed up when it introduced the new “health premium” – denying it was a tax until the courts ruled that the government would have to cover its payment due to the language in many collective bargaining agreements across the province, forcing the Minister of Health to admit at one point that it was in fact a tax. At least the government conceded that it was wrong in that respect but the possible “temporary” tax as we know was not temporary and will live on in perpetuity. Had this tax been part of Dalton McGuinty’s election campaign, he might have seen the same fate as John Tory saw. Ever brilliant, Mr. McGuinty feigned surprise when he got to see the province’s books and used them as an excuse to making the implementation of a new tax one of his first acts as Premier.

My second bone of contention is the ridiculous “LHIN” concept. I’ve held my tongue on this one but the main reason why I am no longer part of the “long term care continuum” at the Olde Forge – I worked twelve years to climb that career ladder to help seniors only to suddenly jump off in January 2008 to join the Ottawa Police Service – but one of the dumbest and short-sighted irresponsible moves your government has made is the closing down of District Health Councils and replacing them with the Local Health Integration Network.

What really gets my goat is how Dalton McGuinty and his robots argued over and over again how irresponsible and stupid the Harris regime was for amalgamating municipalities, hospitals and school boards. It was argued that true savings were never achieved and taxpayers (or end-users) only lost in the end. Then what happened? Some bright person in the Ministry of Health (or the Premier’s office) decided that the best way to “improve” and “save costs” in the health care continuum was to “integrate” organizations into one another. Not wanting to use Harris-like language, amalgamation was a term never used, but it’s one and the same.

Sure, the government finally got us the van we so desperately needed – yet we could not get day program funding… getting money moved from the Ottawa Hospital to the Olde Forge “funded” the program – and put it under the knife as well… for strings were attached. We were told we had to speak with a neighbouring multi-million dollar organization about finding “administrative savings” and other “efficiencies” – completely losing sight that forcing organizations like Nepean Seniors Home Support (oh – that’s right – they changed their name eliminating seniors because the geniuses at the Champlain LHIN forced seniors home support agencies to provide services to “adults with physical disabilities” while never once increasing funding to offset the massive expenses that came up as a result! Where did you think we would get the volunteers and paid workers to provide service when we did not have enough for the seniors to begin with? All that and not one nickel to do so! But I went off on a tangent there – but how will Nepean seniors benefit from seeing their organization swallowed up by the monolith in Kanata ? How will your Ottawa seniors benefit when the Olde Forge is swallowed up by the PQ centre?

You guys once screamed to anyone that would listen that amalgamation never benefits the taxpayer, client, patient, etc., and yet that is precisely one of the next ideas put into motion once the health tax was put in place.

Finally, another stealth sneak attack hits Ontarians at the worst possible time – “integration” of the Ontario Sales Tax with the federal Goods and Services Tax. Sure – people complained about the impact that this move would have on feminine hygiene products, baby diapers and books… resulting in the “rumoured” plan being modified to exempt these items from an 8% tax hike McGuinty and his cohorts are about to impose on us today. What about services? The $400 plumber’s bill will go from $420 to $452 with this change. Will gas prices go up if the “GST” in Ontario goes up to 13%? All this to save some admin time to the small businesses? What about those that might go out of business when people cannot afford to buy their services when they go up 8% overnight? And will the PST office disappear? I doubt it - so who's going to win here? Why are you guys so hell-bent on compromising your past ideals and raising taxes again and again?

I’m shocked that you have silently stood by watching this Liberal government systematically destroy grass-roots organizations from one of the end of the province to the other. The Olde Forge is on borrowed time – you may not admit it today, but your government has that organization on rails that will inevitably lead it to its own demise – and it’s a shame. All the other community-based organizations are headed that way too – for those who are not forced to look at it today will be some day. And finally, those who somehow escape Dr. Cushman’s grip will eventually initiate the process themselves – I saw more than one Executive Director lose sight of the fact they came into the field to help people… only to resort to contemplating how taking over a neighbouring organization might end up seeing them lead a bigger one with a slightly bigger budget – meaning their paycheque might be bigger as a result. "Why worry about the seniors? I’ll be ok!" What they don’t know is that they may not survive the process. I didn’t… but am much better off where I am.

Why am I ranting like this? Why am I speaking to an MPP like this? Because I know that years ago you would never have stood for this kind of thing. Now it seems that you’re telling all of us that we have to like being given money in one hand but having it taken away from the other… (referring to this one-time $1,000 payoff being offered today) and then to support you again next election. Remember how Dalton asked us to “choose change” way back when? I think the time is coming that we do so again - this sort of change we can do without… yet it keeps coming.

Is the real you still there somewhere? Come on out so we can see you again! You're not just another McGuinty drone!!

Being a politician means you MUST say sorry?

Ottawa Sun columnist Susan Sherring wrote a ridiculous column yesterday opening with the following: "Apparently, being a city councillor means never being forced to say you're sorry."

We have, in the last decade or two, become a society where we must make sure that we offend nobody... to the last possible individual. Why? One person gets offended by someone else's opinion and therefore the offender must be tarred and feathered? Fired? Forced to resign? Here's a link to the column in question, followed by a letter to the editor I wrote immediately after reading it.

http://www.ottawasun.com/News/Columnists/Sherring_Susan/2009/03/25/8876116-sun.html

Susan Sherring comments that it seems that "being a city councillor means never being forced to say you're sorry". When did it become absolutely essential for politicians to bow down and crumble each and every time someone is "offended"? Why should we be shocked that Gord Hunter told a constituent "tough luck" upon receiving a complaint that someone told him to stop smoking marijuana outside a comedy club? Shouldn't we be shocked that someone would have the gall to write to a city councillor about this in the first place?! Gord Hunter should be applauded for telling this guy what to do with his complaint and he should be applauded for sticking to his story. Hold your ground, Councillor - you have just as much right to free speach as anyone does - city councillor or not.

It's time for the pendulum to swing back to the other side a bit. It was not so long ago telling someone to stuff it didn't result in cries demanding your resignation.

You can have your opinion... why can't I?