Editorial Liberal waste hurts children and seniors

Beyond wasting billions of our dollars on their disastrous electricity policies, is there anything Ontario’s Liberal government can do right?

The devastating report released by Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk Wednesday, assessing whether taxpayers are getting good value for money spent by Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government, suggests not.

Most disturbing are Lysyk’s findings the government is falling down on the job in protecting society’s most vulnerable, including children, seniors and those on social assistance.

Despite years of inquests into the horrible deaths of children under the care of children’s aid societies, Lysyk found investigations in child protection cases took seven months on average, compared to the required 30 days.

In more than half the cases examined, children in the care of their families were visited only once every three months by CAS officials, instead of the required 30 days.

In more than half the cases of alleged or confirmed child abuse, CAS officials did not do required background checks of the offenders or alleged offenders with the Ontario Child Abuse Register.

The province’s oversight of school buses is inadequate with regard to reporting accidents and ensuring safety inspections are done on time and repairs made.

The system for distributing welfare cheques is a mess, with a new computer system the social services ministry brought in a year ago making calculation errors of over $140 million — $89 million in potential overpayments, $54 million in potential underpayments.

Waiting times for home care services for seniors are too long — despite a previous audit in 2010 — and the provision of services uneven across the province.

The safety of nursing home residents is at risk because inspections are behind schedule, with inadequate follow up to ensure work orders are completed.

People with chronic illnesses are forced to stay in acute care hospitals because there’s no appropriate medical facilities to send them to, a problem that has gotten worse since 2007, when the Liberals created Local Health Integration Networks to address that issue.

Clearly, the Liberals have run out of our money after incompetently wasting billions on useless green energy programs, scandal after scandal and letting the province’s debt and cost of the public service spiral out of control.

And Ontario’s most vulnerable citizens are suffering as a result.
torontosun.com

you wasteful accept it.

Most disturbing are Lysyk’s findings the government is falling down on the job in protecting society’s most vulnerable, including children, seniors and those on social assistance.


you against this?