"The electorate
told our federal cousins that what they did was not good enough" An interview with Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty. To
Mr. Harper: "Address the $23-billion gap"
by Angelo Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, who is
ready to cooperate with Canada’s new Prime Minister Stephen Harper, says
he’s still convinced that the fiscal gap of $23-billion between the province
of Ontario and Ottawa is unacceptable and it will be ad the centre of the
discussion.
In an interview with The Hill Times last
week, Mr. McGuinty said that he’s already had conversations with Quebec
premier Jean Charest and British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell in order
to gather some "intelligence" about "Mr. Harper’s plan to solve the fiscal
imbalance" but also said he still believes that this issue is very hard to
discuss together with other provinces and Ottawa because "we approach this
from a different perspective."
What is your assessment of the federal
election’s results?
"Every time Canadians go to the polls to vote, always they give us reasons
for optimism. It will be a huge mistake to underestimate the collective
wisdom of Canadian voters. There are few, very simple messages now. To my
cousins in the federal Liberal Party they said, 'You have to do better, what
you did was not good enough.’ "
And what’s the message to the federal
Liberals?
"It is my sincere hope that the federal Liberal Party will take the time,
and all the time necessary, to regroup, rebuild and once again inspire
confidence in all Canadians and, by the way, you can’t just change the rims
on the car, while the car is running; you have to put the car up to the
hoist. The second thing the voters said was to the Conservatives, ‘We will
give you a shot, but don’t be carried away.’ "
And the message for you?
"Well, what the voters told me was to find a way to work with the new
administration in a way that serves the people of Ontario. And we will do
that."
Do you believe that this was a vote
against the Liberals or in favour of the Conservatives? "It was a combination of both. I believe that the message to the
Liberals was that there was real room for improvement. And it was time for
them to get time out, go back and regroup, and come up with some good
reasons to inspire again some public confidence. The party was not
decimated. There are still good foundations there to build on, but clearly
our voters told us that we could and we should be doing better."
Is it true that you do not want
provincial Liberals not involved in the upcoming federal Liberal leadership?
"We had a good discussion in the caucus about this and that’s what we
are going to do. Caucus members will be free to involve themselves in the
federal leadership contest, on the condition that they will not allow that
involvement to get in the way of the duty they owe to the constituents in
their capacity as members of the [provincial] government, and on condition
that they will not allow their involvement in the federal leadership contest
to get in the way of their duty or to the Ontario Liberal Party. They have
to be sure that their party is strong, and can successfully win our
re-election."
According to conventional wisdom,
Ontarians want a Liberal government at Queen’s Park if they have a Tory
government in Ottawa. The Jan. 23 results might be a good news for you. "Some people said that according to conventional wisdom the people of
Ontario are happy to oppose political stripes at Queen’s Park and Parliament
Hill. However, I believe that the election in 2007 is really going to be
about the performance of our government and weather we were able to deliver
results to people in sectors like education and health care and the economy.
We are working hard in all those sectors."
Some of your ministers told me some time
ago that the future of your government is tied up with the future of
Medicare. Do you agree? "I think that Medicare will always be important to the people. The way I
see it is that education represents hope for you, your family, and the
children, and health care represents security. People want quality and
affordable assistance when they need it. We have invested close to
$5-billion more in Medicare and we brought some real improvements in the
quality of the service. We are still in the middle of changing the process
but we are moving. For the first time, last year we’ve issued more licences
to foreign-trained doctors than Ontario-trained doctors, and we have many
more newly-funded programs."
Once you said that the funding for
Medicare in Ontario was skyrocketing. And you asked yourself how far are we
supposed to go. Do you now have that answer? "When I arrived at Queen’s Park 15 years ago, about one-third of program
spending was going to health care. Today, it is almost one-half. It is a
combination of doing more and providing assistance in a way that it is less
expensive."
How? "For example, establishing 150 family health teams. It is a group of
doctors, nurses and others so that somebody on the team will be available
24/7. We have too many people with minor ailments going to emergency rooms.
Furthermore, we are creating more opportunities in the homes by expanding
community-based care."
You spoke with the new Prime Minister
Stephen Harper. What did you tell him? "It was just a congratulatory conversation. He is very busy, but I have
extended him an invitation to talk at his earliest convenience to talk about
the fiscal imbalance, what we in Ontario call the $23-billion gap."
The issue of the fiscal imbalance will
be discussed with Ottawa together with other provinces or you go on your
own? "I believe that in an ideal world we would like to resolve this
together. That’s not going to be easy because we approach this from a
different perspective. There are the have Provinces and the have not
provinces. Our issue is very simple: ten years ago Ontarians were sending
two billion dollars to Ottawa, now they send 23 billions that are spent in
other parts of the country. I’ve also spoken to Mr. Charest and premier
Campbell. I wanted to know what kind of intelligence they have when it came
to Mr. Harper’s plan to solve the fiscal imbalance."
Did you get the
information you need? "We had a very
good conversation but I can’t tell you any more then that."
