Tim Hudak From the Park Bench Democratic renewal is certainly an essential tool in making sure our political system in Ontario progresses to best serve the interests of Ontario residents. If you consider progress to be a 20 per cent increase in the number of politicians at Queen’s Park, you just may like the proposed Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system of electing MPPs. On October 10, Ontario residents will not only be casting votes in the general provincial election, they will also be asked to vote in a referendum to change our electoral system to one that exists in New Zealand and Germany. If the referendum passes, the next provincial election will follow the new rules. Under the proposed MMP system, you get two votes: one for your local MPP and one for the political party of your choice. That may sound interesting on the surface, but it unfortunately not only gives birth to 20 per cent more politicians, it also creates two tiers of MPPs. The number of MPPs who are elected the “old fashioned way” and actually represent ridings would shrink from 107 to 90, meaning that riding boundaries would expand significantly. The already expansive Niagara West-Glanbrook that stretches from Pelham to Grimsby to the Hamilton airport in Mount Hope would become even larger.

Catch-and-release is a fine strategy to preserve fish populations in Ontario, but it is a lousy approach to fighting crime and keeping dangerous and repeat offenders off the streets. All too often these days, we see stories on the news about innocent people being killed or preyed upon by criminals and/or known gang members with previous arrests and criminal records. Many of these dangerous offenders are recently out on bail or on parole from a previous crime. Police make arrests and barely finish filling out the paperwork before these dangerous offenders are released back on to the streets. That’s not the message we should be sending to these violent offenders. That’s not the message we should be sending to the law-abiding citizens of Ontario. Take, for example, the recent tragic story of 11-year-old Ephraim Brown, who was shot and killed by a stray bullet on July 22. The two men arrested following the shooting and charged with first-degree murder are well known to Toronto police. One is a known gang member with a history of violence and weapons offences who was on probation. The other faced charges in 2005 in relation to a shooting that injured four people, including a four-year-old child.

The photo of a blank cheque on the report’s cover says you all you need to know about what Ontario's Auditor General, Jim McCarter, discovered while investigating the McGuinty government's $32-million slush fund that handed out cheques to various cultural groups. In fact, the Auditor General described the process behind the slush fund as “among the worst that (I’ve) seen, in terms of almost no controls, process, or accountability.” The report released by McCarter on July 26 found evidence that the money was in many cases distributed at the discretion of Citizenship and Immigration Minister Mike Colle’s office without any process to ensure that taxpayers’ money was being spent properly or even to determine whether the funds were needed by the recipient groups. In some cases, no paperwork or formal application for funds could be found. One of the many examples highlighted by the Auditor General was a $1-million grant to the Ontario Cricket Association when the association only asked for $150,000. The association then deposited $500,000 of the funds in a GIC because they did not need the money, and used $20,000 in a lavish dinner celebration to thank Dalton McGuinty for the million-dollar cheque.

The only thing more frustrating than paying consistently high prices at the pumps is knowing that the built-in taxes do not currently go to fund roads, bridges or public transit. Many people don’t realize that the gas and fuel taxes collected by the province – more than $3 billion annually - are currently funneled into a general revenue stream at the provincial treasury and can be spent on just about anything the government desires. We just hope that all the gas and fuel tax dollars make their way to where they belong. Unfortunately, provincial spending on transportation is less than two thirds of the total gas and fuel tax haul. More than one third of the gas tax revenue ($1.17 billion) is currently being diverted away to other areas. As a lifelong Niagara resident and a Niagara-based MPP for the past 12 years, I have traveled my fair share of the region’s road network – from Grimsby to Fort Erie and all points in between on a regular basis.

They’re quietly creeping across the province. You receive notice of its impending arrival, but there’s nothing you can do to stop it from attaching itself to your home or business. It’s possible one has latched onto your home or business already! Dalton McGuinty calls them "smart meters". I call it another tax grab. Like it or lump it, every Ontario home and small business will be outfitted with a smart meter by 2010 under the current McGuinty government scheme. Smart meters are programmed to monitor how much electricity you use and when you use it. This information is then used to charge higher electricity rates during peak demand periods and lower rates during off-peak hours. Today, hydro users pay the same rate for all hours of the day. When the switch is thrown on the smart meters (conveniently after the next election), average hydro bills will increase substantially.