FEDELI: Union bosses, special interests need to accept that status quo has got to go

Various groups protest at a May Day rally at Queens Park on May 1, 2019. (Jack Boland, Toronto Sun)

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The protest signs and chanting are becoming more frequent on the front lawn of Queen’s Park, which is a bit puzzling.

It appears the union leadership and special interests are fighting to maintain a bloated health-care bureaucracy, failing math scores in our schools, inefficient and outdated programs and services, and a massive deficit and spiralling debt. How else do you explain it?

The fact is the previous Liberal government failed the people of Ontario on several fronts, not least of which was saddling our province and future generations with a $15-billion deficit and a $347-billion debt. The reason this is so devastating is the interest we are paying on this debt is the fourth-largest line item in the Ontario budget, next to health care, education and social services, a whopping $13 billion every year. Think of all the families, seniors, students and businesses we could support with that money!

In response to this fiscal crisis, our government introduced a plan called “Protecting What Matters Most.” It maps a five-year path to a balanced budget, while preserving our critical services and frontline workers. It is a thoughtful, measured and responsible approach that sets out clear priorities.

Our government is choosing to increase year-over-year funding for health care and education. We are choosing to provide families with a CARE childcare tax credit. We are choosing to support low income workers with a LIFT tax credit so no one on minimum wage has to pay provincial income taxes. We are choosing to reduce the cost of tuition for students. We are choosing to digitize and modernize government services so they are more responsive to the needs of the people. These are some of our priorities.

On the other hand, we will not advocate for things like outdated and inefficient processes to return books to libraries. We will not advocate for using valuable resources to plant trees when the private sector is already doing this. We will not advocate for keeping layers of bureaucracy that simply divert funding from front-line services.

Our government is taking immediate steps to ensure good value for every tax dollar spent. To-date we have found savings of nearly eight cents on every dollar spent and we are asking every agency, board, commission and municipality to do the same. We can do better when it comes to delivering heath care, public heath programming, education and social services. Phrases like “it has never been done that way before” need to be replaced with “we can work smarter and more efficiently.”

The union bosses and special interests are defending the status quo because they fear change. They are comfortable. It’s time they wake up and accept the fact that society is evolving, technology is advancing, and our competition could easily overtake us. We can and we must do better. In Ontario, we have a wealth of good, smart, innovative people who can advance our province, while allowing us to get our fiscal house in order.

There are two paths we can take. Do nothing to address our structural deficit, and debt, and sit back and watch while the province drowns in red ink, eventually creating an unsustainable burden for future generations. Or we can follow our five-year plan, balance the books, preserve and modernize our cherished public services and leave a province to future generations that offers tremendous hope and opportunity.

Clearly, our government has chosen the path to hope and opportunity. But to be successful we all have to work together. We all have to strive for a better, more productive province. So the next time our union friends want to lead a chant on the front lawn of Queen’s Park, I suggest this: ‘Hey Hey, Ho Ho the Status Quo Has Got to Go.’

— Vic Fedeli is the minister of finance