Welland - May 21, 2019 - NDP Official Opposition Municipal Affairs critic Jeff Burch released the following statement regarding Doug Ford’s latest scheme to use $7.35 million in public money to have private consultants conduct municipal audits:

“Only Doug Ford would cut billions from municipalities and school boards, then spend millions more hiring private consultants to justify those cuts. Ford’s plan to hire consultant auditors is nothing more than a publicity stunt, and a waste of money - especially since they’re just to re-doing work already done by each municipality’s auditors.

Doug Ford is making deep cuts to child care spaces, public health units, transit and other critical services - and municipalities are now being forced to either accept those devastating cuts, or charge families a Ford Tax to make up the difference. In our children’s schools, Ford has cut per student funding, jacked up the number of kids in each classroom, and forced schools to cut hundreds of classes and options for kids. Putting a private consultant in the driver’s seat won’t change any of this.

Doug Ford’s definition of finding efficiencies is to slash funding for public health, education, climate change mitigation and more - so I doubt municipalities and school boards are interested in learning from Ford’s slash-and-burn budget style. Ontario families deserve better than a government that spends public money on a public relations stunt while cutting billions of dollars from the services that they depend on.”