"eHealth Ontario" Chairman Resigns

Premier Dalton McGuinty, finally makes his move, with the removal of Dr. Alan Hudson, as Chairman of eHealth Ontario. My readers should know, that I first met Dr. Hudson around 1991 or so, during my tenure as Chairman of the Ontario Legislature's Public Accounts Committee.

This scandal has been brewing for several weeks. The Liberals, were very much hoping the whole matter would go away, with the closing of the Legislature for summer recess, and with last weeks firing of eHealth CEO, Sarah Kramer. Read my post of June 8, 2009.

As I said last week the firing of Sarah Kramer "may not be the end of the story".

There are two fundamental issues here that McGuinty could not sustain.

• very large contracts awarded (in the millions) without tender
  
• Ontario Progressive Conservative Party members have said, some of these contracts were given to "Liberal friendly" firms

So as you can see, the Ontario Liberal government had an administrative, and a political problem. This is a toxic mix for Liberal MPPs, and they wanted very badly to be rid of it.

McGuinty, has fixed the administrative problem, by announcing new rules on tendering. By firing Dr. Hudson, whom, according to media reports, he personally appointed, McGuinty may have fixed the political problem.

Again, this may not be the end of the story. The Conservatives smell blood, and they are after Health Minister David Caplan, (a good chap by the way). The Conservatives can't believe Caplan did not know, CEO Sarah Kramer got a $114,000 bonus after only 5 months on the job, or that he was unaware of the contracts to the "Liberal friendly" firms.

Boy, and if he did know, he has a lot of explaining to do.