Ontario govt's new transparency rules a deflection game: opposition parties
By: Romina Maurino, THE CANADIAN PRESS
...Progressive Conservative Peter Shurman called the move "nonsense" and said it targeted the wrong offices.
"The size of the premier's office is what we really have to focus on, and if you want to take it a step further, the size of the public sector with 185,000 net new employees since (Premier) Dalton McGuinty took over while the private sector is dying under him," he said...
TORONTO - A request to have the Tories and New Democrats post their expenses online is nothing but an attempt by the government to deflect attention away from its own dubious spending practices, opposition parties said Thursday.
Neither party has a problem complying with a demand to post their travel and hospitality expenses beginning in April, when cabinet ministers, parliamentary assistants and their political staff will be required to do the same.
But NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the move was simply a game.
"We're happy to be as transparent as we possibly can be but really, the government is trying to deflect their own dismal failure in transparency onto opposition," said Horwath.
"The government needs to look at its own house - we still don't have transparency in so many pieces of what this government does and we see it day in and day out."
There's all kinds of information that isn't available under Freedom of Information laws, she added, as well as a lack of transparency around things like hospital and school boards.
Progressive Conservative Peter Shurman called the move "nonsense" and said it targeted the wrong offices.
"The size of the premier's office is what we really have to focus on, and if you want to take it a step further, the size of the public sector with 185,000 net new employees since (Premier) Dalton McGuinty took over while the private sector is dying under him," he said.
The premier's office has about 60 staff.
In a letter sent to opposition leaders Thursday, the government said that "online posting of expense claim information enhances transparency, helps maintain public confidence in public officials, and acts as a deterrent to inappropriate expenses claims."
Senior executives and the top five claimants in 22 of Ontario's largest agencies will also be subject to the new disclosure requirements.
The request follows a previously announced push for accountability after spending scandals at eHealth and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission this past summer.
McGuinty said in September that top brass at Ontario's 600 arm's-length agencies, boards and commissions must lead by example. He announced that workers at the largest agencies, boards and commissions would have to submit their expense claims to the integrity commissioner rather than having them approved in-house.
Any expenses deemed inappropriate would have to be repaid.
The OLG controversy culminated with the firing of CEO Kelly McDougald and an eventual out-of-court cash settlement worth $747,925 on Christmas Eve over a wrongful dismissal suit. It came just weeks after controversy at eHealth over inappropriate expense claims by highly paid consultants and $16 million in untendered contracts given to consulting companies.