NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says today’s McGuinty government cabinet shuffle is simply cosmetic and will do little to help stimulate Ontario’s economy and fix any of the other problems the province is facing.
“This shuffle is sweeping incompetence under the rug,” said Horwath.
“Ontarians were looking for Dalton McGuinty to show some leadership. Instead, he’s chosen a purely cosmetic cabinet shuffle that keeps David Caplan in charge of mismanaging the health ministry after lucrative contracts were doled out to Liberal-friendly consulting firms under his nose.”
Horwath added: “Keeping Caplan as Health Minister is another move by a McGuinty government that is growing increasingly arrogant. They think they can get away with anything.”
As Ontario faces more job losses, a growing scandal at eHealth Ontario and mounting opposition to the unfair harmonized sales tax grab, recasting second-tier cabinet ministers won’t steer the province in the right direction, said Horwath.
“Given their spotty track records, Ontarians will get little comfort from this recasting of flawed characters,” she said, before describing the litany of failure under each of the reshuffled ministers:
· Sandra Pupatello – Circumnavigated the globe on the public dime and came back with little more than inflated hospitality expenses. Windsor, her hometown, has Canada’s highest unemployment rate.
· Ted McMeekin – Promised to enact strong payday loan regulations but came up woefully short, leaving low-income Ontarians at the mercy of payday loan sharks.
· Michael Gravelle – Watched over 10,000 direct forestry jobs disappear across northern Ontario and remained silent as his government sat on $374-million in unspent forestry grants and loans that were supposed to sustain the jobs.
· John Milloy – Oversaw the spectacularly unsuccessful Second Careers Program that did nothing to assist 90 per cent of unemployed workers.
· John Wilkinson – Didn’t achieve much in previous portfolio and will now be tasked with ramming the HST down the throats of Ontarians.
· Harinder Takhar – Has continually operated under a cloud of controversy. The McGuinty government’s poster boy for rewarding bad behaviour.