Joyce Savoline - Your Burlington MPP

By Joyce Savoline, My View

In June, Tim Hudak became the leader of the Ontario PC Party. He is determined to continue to expose the McGuinty government’s ill-advised HST that couldn’t have been introduced at a worse time, taxing goods and services that are the life blood of our daily lives.

Services include gas, electricity, postage stamps, haircuts, Internet access, real estate agents, bus fares and bicycles.

With only two years left in this mandate, I look forward to working with him and my caucus colleagues to develop policies that will bring Ontario back to its rightful place in Confederation.

In April, I made a petition available at my office. Several were picked up and returned with thousands of signatures. These are still available at my office, at 760 Brant St., Suite 44.

Please tell the premier of your opposition to this new tax at this time. Signing a petition or sending the premier a letter is a great way to let him know that you object.

In addition, many folks have e-mailed me, expressing their opposition. When the House resumes on Sept. 14, Tim Hudak, my caucus colleagues and I will hold the government to account on HST, e-Health, and overall runaway government spending.

Did you know the government is spending $28.3 billion more today than when it took office in 2003?

That is 48 per cent more. We will be letting the premier know that taxpayers cannot continue to pay more, yet have nothing to show for it.

It seems the rule that this government operates under is ‘if you say it isn’t so, it isn’t so!’ Something like the children’s fairy tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes the message we must send to Premier Dalton McGuinty is ‘fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.’

We’re not going to be fooled any longer. On Sept. 14, the House will resume and I

am looking forward to my new role as Critic for Urban Municipal Affairs and Housing. I will draw on 24 years of municipal experience to help influence policies that will improve the quality of life of people in Burlington and across Ontario.

Feel free to contact me at joyce.savolineco@pc.ola.org 905-639-7924 or at www.joycesavolinempp.ca

Joyce Savoline is MPP for Burlington riding.

My View

Burlington Post

Burlington and Ontario residents are right to be outraged by the scandalsurrounding eHealth Ontario and Ontario’s Health Ministry.  It is in-your-face abuse and misuse of taxpayer-funded healthcare dollars Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital has been waiting for confirmation that we are to be considered for our renewal and expansion project and now we discover this ridiculous waste of money.  Burlington residents have paid over $600M into McGuinty’s health tax and have very little to show for it.

In these challenging economic times, people are losing their jobs and can barely make ends meet. If that’s not enough, they’ll soon be slapped with yet another tax grab: Dalton McGuinty’s blending of the PST and GST. 

This all seems hypocritical coming from a Premier who warned cities, towns, schools and hospitals last fall to “tighten their belts” and expect less funding from the Province. As the Premier was uttering these words, eHealth Ontario employees were living the life of luxury, blowing precious taxpayer-funded healthcare dollars on extravagances that had nothing to do with their mandate of creating province-wide electronic health records.

Despite these offensive injustices against Ontario taxpayers, David Caplan still remains at the helm as Health Minister. He’s proven he can’t protect taxpayers’ dollars at one agency, eHealth Ontario, so he shouldn’t be trusted with a ministry-wide budget of $42 billion, which is half of Ontario’s total spending every year. 

He knew months ago there was a spending problem at the Smart Systems for Health Agency, eHealth Ontario’s predecessor, yet he chose to do nothing about it, other than to allow the blatant disrespect for taxpayers’ dollars to continue unchecked at eHealth Ontario. There’s no telling when this spending spree would have ended had our Progressive Conservative party not uncovered it through the Freedom of Information process.

Caplan should not wait for the Auditor-General to tell him the difference between right and wrong. If his moral compass is broken, Premier McGuinty must show him the way to the exit door before he quietly shuffles his cabinet under the cover of summer. 

As Premier, Dalton McGuinty owes it to taxpayers and the integrity of political office to hold Caplan directly accountable and remove him from cabinet.

What does buy local really mean?

The McGuinty government has finally recognized the need to create a buy-local strategy for our agricultural sector. However, a strategy is only the first step.

Now, it is up to all of us, as consumers, to make that strategy a success.

The Foodland Ontario symbol is prominently displayed in our local grocery stores and is part of the Pick Ontario Freshness strategy. This branding campaign is designed to educate consumers and create awareness of the importance of supporting our farmers and local suppliers.

When you support Ontario’s farmers you not only enjoy a great product, you have the opportunity to reduce your carbon footprint at the same time. It takes far less fuel to transport a peach from a Niagara orchard than it does from an orchard in the state of Georgia.

Buying local does not stop with agriculture. We need to make a more concerted effort to support our local retailers, our downtown core and our waterfront. The waterfront sets us apart from other communities and keeps us connected to our natural environment, while local businesses form the heart and soul of our community. They significantly enhance our quality of life by contributing to our charities, minor sports and community events.

Local shopkeepers have invested in our community, they pay both business and personal taxes, their children are involved in local activities and they shop, dine and invest in local businesses. We need to be conscious of supporting our local business community across this province as much as we need to support our agricultural community.

Gone are the days where you knew your butcher or baker by name. We can rekindle a bit of that community spirit by visiting an artisan bakery, or planning a dinner party around food that was grown or raised within a 100-mile radius. Not only will you have a great meal, but you can take pride in the knowledge that you are supporting your fellow Ontarians.

The Burlington Mall farmers market runs from spring through to the fall every Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m.-noon. Stop by and have a look at the vast selection of goods and produce offered by your neighbours. There are varieties available there that you don’t always see in grocery stores and the quality is excellent.

Recently, visitors from the British Isles commented on how tasty our produce is in comparison to the products they grow. We are fortunate indeed to live in a province with high-quality produce and a rich agricultural tradition. Perhaps this has spoiled us to some extent, but it is a tradition worth fighting for.

Each of us has the power to make a difference. We have the opportunity to help our local businesses and farmers expand and grow in the face of watching them close up under the pressures of a competitive global marketplace — the choice is ours. I hope you will join me in buying local.

Joyce Savoline is the Progressive Conservative MPP for Burlington.

Earlier this week, charges were dropped against the six youths charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year old student in the bathroom at C.W. Jeffreys high school.  Why?  Because so much time had passed between the alleged assault and when it was finally reported to police – some 15 months – that memories had faded.

Think what might have happened if the principal and vice-principals at C.W. Jeffreys had actually called the police immediately.  The investigation would have had a chance to get to the truth.

The school’s principal and vice-principals were actually charged for failing to report the apparent sexual assault, but those charges were thrown out by the court and, despite the Crown’s appeal, they will never succeed. 

You see, there is no law that requires principals and vice principals to report student-on-student violence to police.  Right now, the law only requires school administrators to report child abuse that is committed by a parent.  If they fail to report it, they can be charged and face a maximum fine of $1,000.

So why the double standard in protecting our kids?  Why should it matter if the abuser is a parent or a fellow student? 

My colleague, Frank Klees, MPP for Newmarket-Aurora, repeatedly raised this issue this past spring at Queen’s Park.  He talked about the incident at a York Region school where a Grade 1 student was whipped with a belt by two fellow students, twice his age.  The principal not only failed to call the police, the principal didn’t even let the boy’s parents know that their son had been beaten.  Two 13-year old boys were charged after the boy’s parents found out and called police themselves.

Mr. Klees demanded that the Liberal government close this legal loophole and require that student-on-student violence be reported to police.  Education Minister Kathleen Wynne refused.  She declined to stand up and protect our children.

Schoolyard scuffles are as old as cutting classes.  We’re not asking principals to report every shoving match to police.  But, what happened in these two cases were serious acts of violent crime and school officials turned a blind eye to them with no consequences. 

At a minimum, we have a right to expect school officials to keep our children safe. School officials should be legally required to report serious acts of violent crime, like sexual assault and assault with a weapon, to police. 

It’s a no-brainer.  So why won’t Premier McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne change the law to protect our children?

Joyce Savoline is MPP for Burlington and the Ontario P.C. Education Critic

June 16, 2008

The community of Burlington has been through a difficult few months.  We have been used as a lightening rod for the C. difficile outbreak in Ontario.  However, we are not the only hospital affected and unless specific actions are taken by the Ministry of Health we will not be the last.

Following the outbreak in Sault Ste. Marie, the Coroner’s report clearly laid part of the responsibility for their outbreak on their aging infrastructure.  Minister Smitherman has had this report on his desk for over one year collecting dust.

I have repeatedly raised the issue of the need for capital funds for Joseph Brant hospital to deal with our aging  nfrastructure.  Minister Smitherman knows that older hospitals, without significant upgrades are at an increased risk of a C.difficile outbreak, and yet has continued to refuse to release funds to our hospital.

It is this kind of petty politics that shatters our trust.  It is also the reason why Ontario’s Ombudsman should have the power to include hospitals under his authority.  Currently, hospitals are one of a handful of provincially funded organizations in Ontario that the Ombudsman is excluded from overseeing.  In the words of Ombudsman Marin,
“we just write them an $18 billion dollar check every year and walk away.”

While initiating the oversight of the Ombudsman’s office will be cold comfort for the survivors, the victims and their families of the recent C.difficile outbreak, future families will receive the closure they deserve.

If you compare the PC government’s response to SARS with the McGuinty government’s response to C.difficile there is no comparison.  We had multiple daily briefings with the Chief Medical Officer of Health, instituted province-wide hospital protocols, worked to relieve the burden on front-line health care workers in the affected hospitals and most importantly called an immediate public inquiry.  C.difficile has claimed more than five times the number of victims of SARS, and has
affected hospitals across the province as opposed to the concentration of SARS in the Toronto area and yet the McGuinty government continues to do nothing.

C.difficile has been a recurrent issue in Ontario’s Long-Term Care facilities.  I find it ironic that at the same time our seniors are lining our hospital corridors and filling Emergency Rooms searching for care, that there is a simultaneous outbreak of C.difficile in our hospitals.  I believe in getting to the root of a problem and the McGuinty government has an ethical duty to get to the root cause of this issue.  Regrettably, without more long term care beds, we may not resolve this once and for all.
C.difficile preys on our most vulnerable citizens and has dealt our senior community a devastating blow.  I will continue to fight for the funding we need to strengthen and improve Joseph Brant hospital and I will continue to raise this issue in the Legislature until the families of the victims and the survivors of C.difficile receive the answers they deserve.