Give it to them Walter....
Walter Robinson's column in the Sun - from his new website (blog here) - thanks to Glenda for the tip:
But by far the biggest winners in the skyrocketing salary sweepstakes are Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) bureaucrats. A quick scan of the annual postings mandated under the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act shows a rapid increase over the past four years of MOHLTC bureaucrats joining the $100G club.Salaries are 75%, skyrocketing? Are we talking about health care or the NHL?
Salaries account for 70% to 75% of most hospital budgets and outside forces are driving this cost component higher. Even though hospitals will have no idea what their final budget allocations will be until October, some eight months into the fiscal year, CEOs and hospital boards are being asked to guarantee a balanced budget, protect core services and implement a non-essential service cut plan. It is patently absurd.
One senior hospital executive – who leans very Liberal in his politics – recently confided to me that as much as he didn’t like the Tories, at least they understood the funding and service pressures hospitals face.
In his own words, McGuinty and Health Minister George Smitherman “haven’t got a clue how to govern in a health care environment. These guys are a disaster.”
