Provincial NDP and Tories in bed together

At the Legislative Committee this morning it was very apparent that Tory MLAs are on the same page as NDP MLAS when it comes to using dollars from the Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation (MPIC) to fund staff hired by and working in the Minister's office. One Conservative MLA even went out of his way to compliment the NDP Minister responsible for MPIC, Gord Mackintosh, on following this approach which was started by the Tories in about 1997.

From our provincial Liberal perspective, the use of Crown Corporation dollars to hire political staff is bad public policy. I ask "How can a staff person who is hired by the Minister of Justice be an effective advocate for people who have issues with MPIC when their salary is paid by MPIC? Will a person who is paid by MPIC be ready to work hard for the citizens who have concerns or problems with how MPIC is handling their cases?" As Upton Sinclair said: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." Certainly, I have had several significant complaints from MPIC claimants who felt that the Minister's executive assistant did not adequately support their issues with MPIC actions.

By the way, Gord Mackintosh, as much as admitted that Pauline Riley, who is his staff person paid by MPIC funds, was working on the NDP election campaign in the last provincial election - though he said it was on her own time.