Fiberals broken promises, inane initiatives and unacceptable behaviour

Read it and weep. And if you vote Liberal in the Ontario fall election, get checked for a brain cell. More to come.

UPDATE: Read the letter from a co-founder of the Ontario Autism Coalition here, to understand how miserably the McGuinty government treated the parents of children with austism, and undoubtedly others who try to hold them accountable.

BROKEN PROMISES

Promised to ban political government advertising. Using government websites and tax dollars for election campaigning.

Hid behind a court decision instead of taking responsibility for broken promises

Health tax imposed after McGuinty promised “no new taxes” – McGuinty insulted the intelligence of taxpayers when he tried to semantically dance around it by calling it a “premium”

McGuinty promised to lower ETR 407 tolls – back to court seven times instead of negotiating – estimated court costs of $2 to $5 million for a fight that was lost before it started

Promised to cap hydro rates – Toronto hydro rates have doubled

Promised to allow all non-cabinet MPPs to criticize and vote against government legislation – held whipped vote

Promised to provide autism treatment beyond age six – broke the promise, fought a court battle against parents of autistic children and chaseD the parents of autistic children for provincial court costs.

Promised to reduce auto insurance rates by 10% within 90 days – how’s your car insurance premium doing?

Promised to cancel P3 Hospitals in Brampton and Ottawa – broken

Promised to hire 1,000 new police officers – where are they?

Promised to cut Ministers’ pay for running a deficit – gave them a raise instead

Promised to hire 8,000 nurses by the end of 2007 – where are they?

Promised to create tens of thousands of new child care spaces – where are they?

Promised to fund medically-necessary health care services – instead, de-listed eye exams, chiropractic care and physiotherapy

Promised to close coal-fired electricity plants by 2007 – now 2014 – with no real plan to provide alternate source of electricity to replace closed plants

Promised to spend “every penny” of the health tax on health care – been to an emergency room lately?

Promised to stop 6,600 houses on the environmentally sensitive Oak Ridges Moraine – a promise made knowing that it couldn’t be kept.

Promised to operate an open and transparent government - utterly failed, most secretive government in memory, refused to provide taxpayers with full information


INANE INITIATIVES

$500,000 of your tax dollars to tell you to Flick Off

$150,000 to study the sex lives of northern flying squirrels

$1 million for spin doctors for Gerard Kennedy and the Ministry of Education

Spent $250,000 changing the Ontario logo from a trillium to poison ivy

Legislated responsible, law-abiding dog owners of all breeds into second-class citizenship

Braying about seizing and destroying private property when no offence has been committed

Tried to entrench religious arbitration in law, then flip-flopped when women roared – Dalton hasn’t heard of separation of church and state

Tried to ban fresh fish in sushi

Tried to ban church suppers

Tried to ban prepared foods at farmers’ markets

Banned non Liberal-approved snacks in schools


UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOUR

Closed the Legislature three weeks early, killing an anti-animal cruelty Bill

Voted themselves a 25% pay increase (31% including benefits), which increased by another 2% because the Liberals tied it to any increases received by federal MPs

$32 million of your tax dollars given to groups without any application process – the Slush Fund Scandal

Liberal refusal to allow auditor general to probe grants

Insiders win constantly from Ontario Lottery Corporation,

$6 million of taxpayer dollars to drop one letter from Ontario Lottery Corporation logo

$600,000 spent by Ontario Lottery Corporation to fight 82 year old man claiming prize

Liberals shilly-shally on forensic investigation of Ontario Lottery Corporation

Liberals play games with the 2005 budget - entered into a number of transfer-payment arrangements and expensed the amounts involved, thereby increasing the deficit for the year by almost $1 billion - the almost $1.55 billion deficit should only have been $555 million – allowed them to play paper games in 2006 and claim a balanced budget – a shell game misleading taxpayers

$2.5 million to put Michael Chan, newly-elected Liberal MPP, into a Cabinet position for a ministry that no longer exists – office, limo, salary

Failed to remove Harinder Takhar from cabinet after integrity commissioner found Takhar had breached Integrity Act

Number of Ontario public servants making over $100,000 per year increased by 23% in a single year under Dalton McGuinty

Gave City of Toronto unlimited authority to impose taxes wherever council chooses, making Toronto less appealing for business, residents and visitors

Driver’s Licenses cost $25 more to renew for each driver

Electricity costs have increased for the average home by $180 per year

Ad agency which worked on McGuinty's 2003 campaign made $99,000 that year, $6 million in the subsequent two years

Former law firm of Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant and the firm where his wife was employed were among the highest-paid private firms retained by the government in 2006.

Collected 15+ billion in property taxes, gave back less than 9 billion per year to municipalities (exact numbers to be confirmed) while refusing to upload welfare, fire and ambulance costs, and other things downloaded to municipalities

Forced to withdraw multi-million dollar healthcare advertising campaign when ads were found to be partisan

Spent $750,000 on a three-day conference in Niagara-on-the-Lake attended by 18 people - $10,000 on ice (exact amount to be verified)

Banned smoking in bars and restaurants, even outdoors, yet government owned and operated Casino Niagara has a large smoking pavilion because 'they are not primarily in the business of selling food'.

Approximately 60,000 driver's licence blanks stolen/missing from Ministry of Transport - no repercussions for Takar, the Minister who was in charge of MTO