Let The Games Begin..........

......the defeat of the fiberals at Queen's Park. The people of Ontario have the opportunity in 2007 to bring sanity and fiscal responsibility back to the province and hopefully, unlike Toronto voters, will not reward the left wing for broken promises and poor performance. Mr. Moerman has fired the first salvo......

Pay for performance

Once a year, I establish objectives for my department. At the end of that year, my performance is rated using my success in meeting or exceeding those objectives.

If none of my objectives have been met, I receive no increase and no bonus. If I meet the minimum requirements for each objective, my performance is unremarkable and again, there is no increase and no bonus. If however I exceed those objectives, my performance is rewarded with a base salary increase (usually 1-3%) and a one-time bonus.

From my perspective, the McGuinty government has failed to meet any of the objectives for which they were elected; despite a sizeable tax increase (dubbed a health care premium), health care is still in shambles and emergency room wait times have not decreased. The education system continues to scramble for funding, crime is on the increase, and Ontario's cities are scrounging for dollars to meet rising infrastructure costs.

The McGuinty government has not only failed to meet their objectives; at last count, they had broken over 50 promises made to the electorate prior to being sworn in on Oct. 23, 2003. Out here in the real world, they have by all accounts achieved a rating of "Improvement Required," a rating that often sees an employee facing imminent termination without immediate change.

Dalton McGuinty and his government are evidently entitled to a 25% pay increase for poor performance and missed objectives. Increases of this type should only be permitted after a detailed performance appraisal. Unfortunately, the provincial government's performance appraisal happens only once every four years, when the electorate goes to the polls.

Robert Moerman

Mississauga