WATERLOO – MPP Catherine Fife, the Ontario NDP's Finance and Treasury Board critic, has released the following statement in response to the Financial Accountability Officer’s report on Wednesday, which concluded that Premier Doug Ford’s decision to move nine ServiceOntario centres into Staples stores will cost taxpayers $11.7 million, over one million higher than his government’s initial estimate.
Fife said, “When the government provides services to the public, it answers to taxpayers. Time and time again, we see that when the Ford government washes its hands of its responsibilities and public services are outsourced to big private companies, quality plummets. Every week, my office deals with Ontarians who are frustrated with their inability to access the services that their taxes have paid for, such as Health atHome and DriveTest. Is that what we can now expect from ServiceOntario?”
She added, “Just yesterday, Ford warned that incoming U.S. president Donald Trump’s tariffs could result in the loss of 500,000 jobs in Ontario. Why, then, is he rewarding a big American company with a single-source contract while shutting down small, local operators?”
Read the FAO’s full report: https://fao-on.org/en/report/serviceontario/