For immediate release:
April 14, 2005

Barrett points to Ontario health care double speak
Hospital boards told to “do as I say, not as I do”

Queens Park – During Opposition Day debate at Queens Park yesterday, Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant MPP Toby Barrett was quick to point out the hypocritical nature of a government that continues to run a deficit while expecting hospital boards to balance the books

Barrett began with a lesson in management planning.

“You have to plan - you have to ensure that your expenses don't outstrip your bank account, that's what we do every year at budget time.” Barrett began. “I should say, that's what some of us do every year at budget time, and I'm sure the public will find out soon enough that, when it comes to managing and planning a budget that doesn't dip into the red, this government, yet again, will not be up to the job.”
He then turned his sights on the discrepancy in how the government manages and what it expects of Ontario’s hospital boards.

“The issues of management and planning are the same issues faced by hospital boards -- in my area, Norfolk General, Tillsonburg, West Haldimand, War Memorial Hospital, Brantford General,” said Barrett. “Boards that are being told by this deficit-ridden Liberal government to ‘do as I say, not as I do’.”

Earlier, PC Leader John Tory joined to debate the Opposition Day health care motion.

“Last year, the Liberal government refused to tell the hospitals of Ontario how much money they would be getting until 11 months had gone by in the fiscal year,” Tory asserted. “I wonder whether anybody in this assembly or anybody watching at home or anybody operating a business or any family in Ontario could manage their own lives or manage their own financial plans if they weren't told what their income would be until the end of the year?”

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For more information please contact MPP Toby Barrett at: 519-428-0446, 905-765-8413 or 1-800-903-8629