“GRIT AIR” AND MINISTER’S EGO COST TAXPAYERS - RUNCIMAN
(Toronto) – In the Ontario legislature today, PC Government Waste critic Bob Runciman (MPP Leeds-Grenville) described yesterday’s use of a government plane to ferry Energy Minister Dwight Duncan and six others back and forth from Toronto to Thunder Bay, as a blatant misuse of tax dollars and a reflection of the minister’s “over-inflated ego.”
Runciman criticized the use of a government plane rather than less costly commercial flights as well as the need for the Minister to be accompanied on the trip by 4 staffers and 2 OPP officers.
“There are no good or understandable reasons for such a large entourage or the use of a government plane,” asserted Runciman. “The only possible reason for this misuse of tax dollars is this Minister’s grandiose view of himself as someone terribly important and deserving. It’s the old Liberal mantra “I’m entitled to my entitlements”.
Runciman also charged that the misuse of tax dollars and disingenuous justifications for it were becoming a “trademark feature of the McGuinty Liberal government.”
Speaker.
Today’s Toronto Sun carried a story briefly outlining Energy Minister Duncan’s use of a government plane to fly himself and six others to a conference in Thunder Bay and back to Toronto.
A spokesman in the minister’s office claimed that the cost was the same as use of a commercial flight and that is a blatantly inaccurate claim, to be polite.
Costs of commercial flights are dramatically lower and use of Air Canada or Westjet would have saved taxpayers thousands of dollars.
Misuse of tax dollars and disingenuous justification for it is becoming a trademark feature of this McGuinty Liberal government.
Speaker, why would the minister need 4 staffers to travel with him? Why would he need 2 police officers? Why was it so necessary for him to get back to Toronto to chair cabinet?
As a former Solicitor General and a former chair of cabinet, I don’t believe there are reasonable answers to those questions.
I think it’s all about this Liberal government’s lack of respect for tax dollars, starting at the top and this Minister’s grandiose view of himself as someone terribly important and deserving of a large entourage.
That’s what this boils down to Speaker – lack of respect for tax dollars and a minister with an over inflated ego, or a presidential complex.
Speaker. The people of Ontario are catching on to this Liberal bunch and their days are numbered.
