The last time I went there, I learned something. Remember those Ontario Health cards with the red and white stripes and no head shot? Several years ago, I received notice that I needed to have mine updated with new coding and a photograph. I honestly had visions of lineups, questionnaires, and a long wait to have a new photo taken and an even longer wait for the new card to arrive.
“Nope,” the ServiceOntario representative said. “I already have your photo from your driver’s licence in the file. We can use that for your new health card.”
I was in and out of the service outlet in minutes. My updated card arrived just days later. And I’d discovered that the digital system storing my photo ID actually does work.In my opinion, all the criticism that public service people and their offices receive – being bureaucratic, tedious and suffering from inertia – is unfair and inaccurate. And I get it. Governments on the right side of the political spectrum espouse “less government involvement” and more free enterprise as a policy plank; those on the left believe “government regulation” is healthy and publicly operated services are vital.
That said, I think closing independent ServiceOntario facilities and installing them instead in Staples stores is the wrong way to go. This week, Todd McCarthy, minister of public and business service delivery of Ontario, appeared at a Staples store in the GTA to announce that six ServiceOntario centres will open in Staples stores across Ontario today. It’s part of a three-year pilot project the Ontario government claims will save about $1 million.
At the press conference following the announcement on Monday, reporters challenged the minister on what looks a lot like sole-source contracting. They asked where the savings would come from if the Ford government is paying private interests to install centres in their stores.
“The savings come from the leasing costs,” McCarthy said.
“The nine (ServiceOntario) centres you’re closing pay their own retrofit costs,” a CityNews reporter pointed out, “where are the savings coming from?”
“The investment we’re making here is about the moms and dads, the people of Ontario who want and need longer hours, more accessibility,” McCarthy said.
“Why didn’t you choose a Canadian company?” a CTV reporter asked.
“(Staples) employs Canadians in the province of Ontario,” he said.
The minister dodged the questions. But as I said, Conservative governments believe first and foremost in business and free enterprise. Let’s be clear, however, the Ford government did not put this proposition of choosing a private partner to deliver Ontario public services to tender in an open and competitive bidding process.
The minister and cabinet appear to have made the decision behind closed doors and did not disclose details of the arrangement. Only when pressed by media did the Ford government come clean and admit that it’s spending $10.2 million of taxpayers’ money to save in leasing arrangements what it calculates is about $1 million.
“If there’s a sole source, there has to be a reason,” York University Professor Richard Leblanc told CBC News, “and it’s normally urgency or expertise.”
So, where’s the urgency? Where’s the expertise? It looks to many of us that this in-camera decision is consistent with the Ford government’s track record of not consulting with public stakeholders. Need we be reminded of the way in which the Ford government was exposed for its handling of Greenbelt lands?
First, the former auditor general disclosed that the Ford administration’s decision to release 7,400 acres of Greenbelt land was “biased in favour of certain developers (who) could ultimately see $8.3 billion increase in the value of their properties.”
Then, Ford political advisers and ministers went down like bowling pins. To add to the scandal, a couple of weeks ago, the Toronto Star published the contents of a private email on provincial business, that suggest Premier Ford didknow about plans for releasing the Greenbelt lands, when he always claimed, “I don’t know anything about it.”
And speaking of knowledge, there’s one other elephant in the room of farming out ServiceOntario locations that perhaps Minister McCarthy fails to recognize. And it should alarm Ontarians who are really sensitive about privacy.
In an era of ransomeware attacks when bad actors can hack systems, encrypt files and demand ransom payment, why would we feel the least bit confident with our health, driving or provincial tax files sitting in a ServiceOntario kiosk in the corner of a private business outlet?
The last time I looked, democratic governments are elected to provide service to the public, not show a profit from it.