Ontario’s ‘stretch’ government
Ontario’s Liberals have long excelled at offering up creative excuses for major policy failures. My favourite, up until now, has always been Dalton McGuinty’s, “It’s never too late to do the right thing.” The former premier deployed that one repeatedly over the years in the face of mounting criticism, and ever growing evidence, of the complete hash his government had made of the province’s electricity sector.
The statement was true, of course — it’s always good to do the right thing. But it also missed the point. When you’re in government, the public expects you to do the right thing, if not from the absolute outset — I’m a pragmatist when it comes to Ontario premiers — then at least before you have tried literally every imaginable wrong thing, first.
The f ormer premier’s folksy reply, though, has been eclipsed as my favourite glib Liberal answer to a serious criticism. After pledging years ago to cut auto insurance rates by 15 per cent, and having fallen well short of that goal, the current premier, Kathleen Wynne, has shrugged the failure off. It wasn’t a pledge, actually, you see. It was a “stretch goal.”
Oh. Well, carry on, then, Premier. I feel rather silly for having even brought it up.
Let’s recap the context here: in 2013, the Liberals, then in a minority situation, had to agree to a series of NDP demands to stay alive. One of the demands was to cut the province’s auto insurance rates by 15 per cent. The NDP wanted a one-year deadline on that commitment; the Liberals bought themselves a reprieve from defeat in the legislature by agreeing to a two-year timeline.
The goal was always stupid, of course. Car insurance rates in Ontario are high by national standards, but the reasons for that are complicated ( unusually high levels of fraud, massive payouts to post- accident rehab clinics and assorted regulatory issues are the too-simplified reasons, in a tiny nutshell). There probably are ways of addressing some of these issues, to bring premiums in Ontario more in line with national averages. But simply waving the magic wand of government at it was never going to be one of those ways.
Two years after the pledge, while rates have come down, they’re well off the 15 per cent target. As of August of last year, rates had come down about seven per cent. So less than half the target.
That sort of sounds like a failure to deliver on a specific pledge by a targeted date. But Premier Wynne is having none of that. The 15 per cent pledge was a goal — a stretch goal. The term, near as I can tell appropriated from crowd- f unding websites, means that getting there would be nice, sure, but isn’t really the point. It’s a bonus. It’s the thought that counts.
The NDP feels bent out of shape that the Liberals failed to deliver. No kidding. This ought to be a lesson: don’t extort dumb promises from desperate governments with a long track record of failures. It won’t end well for you.
Or for the people of Ontario, in all likelihood. The Liberals ran out of gas years ago; it is astonishing and depressing in equal measure that they remain in office. The only thing they’ve shown any natural ability in of late is finding new ways to excuse failures.
Premier Wynne may be road testing her latest here. Missed our balanced budget target? No big deal — just a stretch goal. Can’t contain public- sector wage growth? Stretch goal. Projects coming in late and overbudget? Bummer, but hey, it was a stretch goal. Bridges that don’t immediately break? Look, we were reaching on that one.
It’s a new line for a tired government. Too bad it’ ll probably work.
PREMIER WYNNE HAS SOMEHOW FOUND YET ANOTHER EXCUSE FOR FAILURE.