Anger at unions and government

Re Payouts to teachers unions, boards top $7M, Column Oct. 27 How much more of our money will Premier Kathleen Wynne and Education Minister Liz Sandals give away before they learn that in any business (and government is a business) you always have to keep a budget record? Even a businessman with only half a brain would never give away millions of dollars without demanding receipts for third-party expenditures. If this is truly the way the Liberal party in Ontario operates, then I am beginning to understand why we have been subjected to the Ornge scandal and the gas plants debacle.

At this time, there appears to be only one decent course of action for Wynne and Sandals to take: they need to step down or, at the very least, sign up for a beginner’s course in business administration. And I have to tell you that this letter comes from someone who has voted Liberal in this province all his life! Given what we have just been through with the former Conservative government in Ottawa, it is enough to make almost anyone begin to lose hope of decent, responsible and democratic leadership.

Justin Trudeau, I hope and trust that you can do better. Eric Balkind, Guelph, Ont.

While Kathleen Wynne continues to back Liz Sandals in her quest to explain the obvious “under the table” payoffs to the teachers unions, she is underestimating the disgust the public has against the incompetence of our public officials to act in a prudent and professional manner in managing the public purse. Since when did it become the public’s responsibility to fund union activities, regardless of the time and cost it takes to secure an agreement? Unions collect substantial dues from their membership and I doubt if they are financially incapable of funding their own activities. But to then ask for, and receive, additional monies from the general public, via the education ministry, leaves me wondering what side of the balance sheet government negotiators are representing. S. Craine, Toronto