Auditor Should Investigate CCAC York Region

Taxpayers have a right to know how the McGuinty government is spending their tax dollars for health care. The auditor general should audit the financial practices of the former York Region Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) and audit so-called realignment costs for all CCACs. Joan Doran, the Associate Executive Director for the CCAC York Region, has a publicly listed salary' of $446,568.76. She ranks 57th on the Sunshine Report of salaries for government employees. Such a disclosure raises a myriad of questions when the next highest listed salary for a CCAC employee is $187,000 and is fully 2,000 spots lower on the list.

Phone calls into the Ministry of Health provide barely a shred of information and a whole lot of passing of the buck. The Ministry says the employee's salary may cover a severance package 'in accordance with departmental guidelines'. Based on her salary of $148,198 for 2005, it appears the package may be equivalent to over 24 months for some 20 years of service. This is generous for anyone. It is the same package given to Ontario Lottery and Gaming corporation boss Duncan Brown or Hydro One CEO Tom Parkinson when they ended their jobs.

Who was involved in authorizing this package Perhaps it the Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) for CCACs The ADM suggests guidelines were issued and it was up to the individual CCACs to make their own determination of package costs. No one will release the guidelines for taxpayers to see, so it is hard to tell what the guidelines were or whether they were followed here.

Perhaps it was the Chair of the Board of the CCAC It turns out his judgment is in question as well. Around the time of approving this package he was fired as President of his company - Neotel International. According to a company press release he was terminated after the Toronto Stock Exchange halted trading on the stock due to financial and disclosure irregularities including receipt of company funds without authorization.

Perhaps it was Mr. Bill Innes, York Region's Executive Director, who it turns out is Ms. Doran's husband How is it that the CCAC boss was married to his second in charge Isn't that an obvious conflict of interest According to ministry directives, the director is "responsible for providing leadership, guidance and management to the CCAC staff, including human and financial resources management in accordance with accepted business and financial practices and standards." It is tough to see how the director could do this when his second in charge is his wife. Most workplace discrimination and sexual harassment policies would preclude a spouse reporting to a spouse.

Taxpayers have sent billions to Queen's Park in health taxes and we deserve to know that it is not being misused. This is just one case; is it the only one With 42 CCAC's folding into 14 Local Health Integration Networks this may be the tip of the 're-alignment cost' iceberg. The bottom line: without and audit taxpayers may never know as the government seems more interested in covering up than disclosing how tax dollars are spent delivering health care.
- Kevin Gaudet, Ontario Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation