It is unbelievable that $1 billion (that’s $1,000,000,000) got wasted in the eHealth scandal, yet neither fines nor criminal charges was laid for the parties involved! Bryn Weese from Toronto Sun gave us a rough idea what this $1 billion could get us if it was spent wisely:
Instead of buying consultants coffee, and paying them to consult with themselves and edit voicemail greetings, here's what Premier Dalton McGuinty could have bought for the health-care system with $1 billion:
- 500 MRI machines at $2 million each.
- Two mega-hospitals with more than 500 beds, similar to the new Brampton Civic.
- 50 smaller community hospitals.
- 5,000 doctors at $200,000 each.
- 17,466 first-year nurses at $57,252.
- 11,720 nurse practitioners at $85,320.
- 33,333 cancer treatments at $30,000 each.
If taxpayers happen to file their taxes late, they would be promptly charged with an incredible amount of interest. If you or I did this at work, we would lose our jobs, got our professional licenses revoked, and probably got thrown to jail. Plus, no one would hire us when we are released. However, the government is getting away with this!? I don’t get it!
- Two mega-hospitals with more than 500 beds, similar to the new Brampton Civic.
- 50 smaller community hospitals.
- 5,000 doctors at $200,000 each.
- 17,466 first-year nurses at $57,252.
- 11,720 nurse practitioners at $85,320.
- 33,333 cancer treatments at $30,000 each.
If taxpayers happen to file their taxes late, they would be promptly charged with an incredible amount of interest. If you or I did this at work, we would lose our jobs, got our professional licenses revoked, and probably got thrown to jail. Plus, no one would hire us when we are released. However, the government is getting away with this!? I don’t get it!
Apparently, it is obvious why Caplan agreed to drop the outside review back in July, which is supposed to be reported earlier than the Ontario Auditor General’s report. Finally, Caplan stepped down the night before the Auditor General’s report was released, but so what? He probably resigned with a fat severance package anyway, just like the departure of the former Hydro One CEO back in 2007.
Are we seeing a pattern here? Scandal uncovered--> Audit --> Personnel in charge got replaced --> Another Scandal uncovered --> ...... another one...... and another one ............ Not to mention that the cases got uncovered were probably just a tip of the iceberg. The funniest (or saddest) thing is, for some reason, the same government got elected again! How did they do it?
Well, just two more years before the next election in which we have our chances to vote off this incompetent government. I hope Ontarians still have good memories by then.
If the government used our money more efficiently, we probably wouldn’t need to pay so many taxes, like GST, PST, the Ontario Health Premium, and the upcoming HST, in which businesses would benefit the most, but not consumers. Since each political party is getting sponsored by different businesses, it is quite obvious that the winning party is likely to setup some policies that would benefit their supporters, especially those “favorite” businesses closely related to the winning party.
Would the RCMP do the same kind of investigation in Ontario as they did to the B.C. Health Ministry? I definitely hope so!
