Toronto – Premier Dalton McGuinty should have been a bank manager – when money is tight, he makes it available to those who already have plenty and ushers others out of the door.
The Liberal premier has conceded, at a time when economic growth and revenue have slowed, he does not have money he needs to fulfill all his promises.
So he has offered generous pay increases to doctors and public elementary school teachers who, in addition to being reasonably well off, have political power. He's and delayed his plans to help the poor, who have none.
McGuinty has offered doctors pay raises that will total 12.25 per cent over the next four years, which is much more than most residents can look forward to.
He has insisted this is fair, particularly because it will encourage existing doctors to stay and attract new ones needed because of the current shortage.
Doctors make it impossible to know how much the average doctor will earn, because in the statistics they put out they include many, particularly older doctors, who work only part-time and make their average income appear less.
A case can be made doctors deserve all they get, particularly if they do their essential job well, although there is evidence some do not — but do they deserve it more than others?
The province has offered a 12 per cent pay increase over four years to the elementary teachers that will raise their maximum salary to a giddy $94,000 a year, adding new incentive to the common advice: those who want a good job should stay in school.
McGuinty says this is all the province can afford, but he does not need to apologize to the teachers, who deserve admiration, because theirs is a tough and valuable job. But most Ontarians will feel McGuinty, who has been trying hard to make himself known as 'the education premier’, has been stretched to the limit in looking after teachers.
McGuinty is particularly anxious not to offend doctors, who quietly reach for their scalpels when negotiating for pay, because he has more than 500,000 residents unable to find a family doctor and hopes to persuade existing doctors to take on more.
No-one also wants to return to the days when a Progressive Conservative government had a schoolyard fight with teachers daily, but Ontarians are having to pay higher prices than they expected for peace in education.
Teachers have been found to miss an average 12 days a year through sickness, more than the average for most categories of workers, although they work only 10 months a year.
Taxpayers have been spending $260 million a year on replacements, but the premier still has not said how he will make sure teachers attend school more.
McGuinty also has done nothing to reduce the practice of school boards hiring retired teachers first when they need replacements. The retired teachers commonly collect pensions of more than $40,000 a year.
Apart from the unfairness, this prevents newly trained teachers, including many from visible minorities attracted to and needed by the profession, and others who can work only part-time for reasons including being single parents, obtaining a foothold in their profession.
Other public workers who have immense political clout have been collecting more money without hindrance from McGuinty. Police and firefighters have sought and obtained so-called ‘retention pay,’ extra bonuses to stay in their jobs rather than move to neighboring jurisdictions.
Some municipalities are being forced to pay police and firefighters twice as much as their average residents earn, although firefighters commonly have the perquisite of cramming their workweek into a few days at the station and spending the rest of the time renovating homes.
The embattled Progressive Conservative leader, John Tory, has urged McGuinty to demand municipalities be more prudent and offered them incentives to do so, but the premier will not tread on their toes.
McGuinty also promised a ‘war on poverty,’ but instead will settle mildly for comforting the comfortable.
Eric Dowd is a veteran member of the Queen’s Park press gallery.
