Liberals Funnel Union Payments At Expense of Students and Teachers

QUEEN’S PARK – Today during Question Period, Leader of the Official Opposition Patrick Brown asked Acting Premier Deb Matthews about the government’s payments to teachers’ unions.

Over the past three provincial election campaigns, teachers’ unions spent more than $6.5 million to run negative ad campaigns and donated nearly $800,000 to the Liberals over the past decade.

The Globe and Mail has alleged that the government didn’t need receipts for its payments to teachers’ unions because the payments weren’t covering negotiating costs. This represents yet another growing scandal of Ontario’s Liberal Government for which Ontario’s taxpayers have had to foot the bill.

“When the gas plant scandal broke, the government said it only cost $40 million,” said Leader Patrick Brown.  “Yet when secret documents became public, that number exploded to one billion dollars.  When this latest scandal broke last week, one million became $2.5 million on Friday, and has now grown to over $7 million.”

Taxpayers and Ontario’s education professionals deserve to know from where in the education budget and Ontario’s classrooms were the millions of dollars diverted.

“The public is outraged that their education dollars are being abused.  Teachers are paying for classroom supplies out of their own pockets,” Leader Patrick Brown added.  “Parents are fundraising for school trips because they’re being told the cupboard is bare.  It’s wrong and this Liberal Government knows it.”

Brown concluded, “When will this government apologize to the people of Ontario for funneling dollars out of the classroom for their own political purposes?”