TORONTO – Ontario Liberal Leader, Steven Del Duca has issued the following statement:
“I would like to thank the Auditor General for her latest audit of the Ford Government, which has confirmed many of the serious failures raised by the Ontario Liberal Party. She has exposed that Doug Ford wasted or misspent billions of dollars because of his incompetence in responding to COVID-19. Her report exposes non-stop scrambling to roll out programs hundreds of days after they were needed because of a lack of basic managerial skills in Doug Ford’s Government.
Small businesses in Ontario faced their most difficult years ever and needed Doug Ford’s support and help, but Doug Ford and his now-former Finance Minister were missing in action while the business support program was being designed. Now, the Auditor General has revealed that Ford sent almost $1-billion to businesses who either didn’t qualify for the support, or who didn’t face losses during the pandemic. All while many struggling small businesses and sectors received nothing.
This scandal is in addition to the Ford government’s failure to support Ontario small businesses through updated health and safety guards, or by providing 10 paid sick days.
Instead of making sure small businesses, and all Ontarians, had the support they needed, Doug Ford was consumed by his war on our environment. The Auditor General’s report also confirms that 44 new MZOs were recently issued, and none were used to expand protected green space.
I thank the Auditor General for her thoughtful recommendations on how to stop Doug Ford from further weaponizing MZOs. Many of her recommendations were included in our Ontario Liberal plan to scrap MZOs and create a new, more transparent and accountable tool to build communities sustainably.
Ontario Liberals will bring an end to the incompetent, reckless Doug Ford Government in 2022.”
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