Dalton McGuinty may have earned himself a new nickname – “Puff” Daddy.
There is a troubling and growing gap, the province’s Ombudsman charged in his annual report, between what Ontario’s government promises to do and what it delivers.
“It has not escaped the people of Ontario that strongest leadership shown by many key government bureaucracies has been in making puffed-up promises,” Ombudsman Andre Marin said at a Queen’s Park press conference.
When confronted with criticisms, failings or “shabby and incompetent” actions, government ministries, agencies, boards and commissions routinely respond with attempts to “sideline the issue” or proclaim themselves “world class,” an “international leader” or otherwise engage in self-serving hyperbole.
“If government and their agencies believe they can hustle the public, they will be tempted to leave their programs under-resourced and flawed, crossing their fingers that no one will pull back their Wizard-of-Oz curtain and expose the real state of affairs,” Marin said.
That was the case, the Ombudsman found in reviews over the past year, at the province’s Municipal Property Assessment System, which boasted it was a “global leader in property assessment” but actually was “a cutthroat agency with little regard for homeowners.”
Marin said he was tempted to title his annual report “The Year of Overpromising and Underdelivering.”
Ontarians are among the most highly-taxed citizens on the planet and it’s been abundantly clear for a considerable time that we do not get good value for the tax dollars taken from our pockets. nothing is likely to change unless voters, in the lead up to the Oct. 10 provincial election this fall, squawk.
NOTE: My attempts to get a comment from McPimpy on this report were unsuccessful, but I was able to obtain an exclusive candid photo.