A matter of priorities
Practising petty, vindictive politics is bad enough. Doing so when it will cost taxpayers as much as $500,000 when you’re purporting to be a frugal, cost-cutting government is the height of hypocrisy.
Doug Ford’s government has put itself in that sorry position by ordering the firing of a top executive of Ontario Power Generation, Alykhan Velshi. Velshi just happens to have served as chief of staff to the Progressive Conservative party’s previous leader, Patrick Brown, and this looks very much like part of a settling of accounts between the Ford and Brown camps.
Pursuing a vendetta against enemies, real or perceived, inside his own party isn’t a good look for Ford. It’s especially bad when, as the Star’s Robert Benzie reports, ousting Velshi from his position as OPG’s senior vice-president of corporate affairs and community relations may cost the government up to $500,000 in severance payments.
This government, after all, has made cutting costs it’s No. 1 priority. It has slashed a planned increase in welfare payments and cancelled plans to build satellite campuses in three communities on the grounds that spending must be restrained. And on Thursday, it plans to dole out more tough news in its fall economic statement. Yet, amid all those cuts, the government is apparently willing to come up with half a million dollars or so to make sure a man associated with a defeated and banished former PC party leader isn’t allowed to enjoy a good job at a provincial energy company.
But what’s a measly half-million when the latest provincial budget shows spending running at $158.5 billion? Actually, it adds up. For example, it’s exactly the amount of money that a charity called Pro Bono Ontario is seeking from the province to continue offering free legal aid to some 18,000 people. Attorney-General Caroline Mulroney has told the organization to look elsewhere for the money. Times, after all, are tough and the government has to tighten its belt.
In fact, the government can clearly come up with money when it wants to. It’s all a matter of priorities. And judging by this episode, its priority is carrying out a political hit-job rather than serving the interests of all taxpayers.