Fellow municipal watchers The London Fog:
The naked boom
As William Robson notes in the Financial Post, "productivity in the public sector tends to be lower than in business." This may seem self-evident to anyone who's watched a government employee on the job but, notwithstanding the welcome and vital work performed in some areas of the economy — like health care — in which the government has effectively legislated private competition out of existence, the most significant cost to productivity from the public sector lies in the fact that most government business is contracted by political demand instead of real demand.
Dalton McGuinty is doing a fine job creating new jobs in Ontario, unfortunately, we're all going to be paying for them. The real kicker comes at the end of London Fog's post - Municipal employee ranks in Ontario rose 11% .
Another question to ask about your tax dollars.
Ontario created 14 Local Health Integration Networks to manage healthcare in Ontario. The government website claims that the LHN's are now managing over two thirds of the Province's Healthcare budget.
"There are 14 LHINs across the province. While we don’t directly provide health care services, we were given the mandate for planning, integrating and funding health care services. We oversee nearly two-thirds of the $37.9 billion health care budget in Ontario."If that's the case, why have we not seen a significant decrease in the number of people employed by the Ministry of Health in Toronto? Right, I forgot, someone has to keep an eye on the LHN's.
Billions of dollars in increased transfer payments to the Provinces and all Dalton McGuinty can do when Municipalities ask for money is point to the Federal Government and say there's nothing he can do. It's patently false and politically convenient.
Municipalities are the creation of the Provinces and the Provinces should be responsible for their creations.
/rant off
