McGuinty and late fees

[capricorn]

Premier Dad has found a way to reward us for being impatient.

Ontario’s governing Liberals are promising to make it easier – and faster – to renew your driver’s licence or health card, The Canadian Press has learned.

If they win the Oct. 6 election, the Liberals plan to introduce a service guarantee to refund any provincial fees if people have to wait more than 20 minutes at a ServiceOntario outlet, sources said Thursday.

The clock would start when a person checks in at ServiceOntario, and if they aren’t called back to the counter within 20 minutes any fees they are facing will be waived.

It costs $74 to renew a licence plate sticker for a passenger vehicle in southern Ontario and $37 in northern Ontario, while fees for registering a newborn range from $25 to $35.

The guarantee would apply to any personal transactions at ServiceOntario, including applying for a birth certificate or changing your address.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ontario-liberals-to-waive-fees-if-renewing-licence-or-health-card-takes-over-20-minutes/article2126622/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Ontario

And to underscore Premier Dad's commitment to helping families, he'll coordinate the date of renewal of various provincial licenses and cards for all family members.

The Liberals also plan to allow families to change renewal dates for health cards and driver’s licences, usually each person’s birthday, so everyone in the family can renew their cards at the same time and “avoid multiple visits to ServiceOntario,” said one source.

“The birthdate for one parent would serve as the benchmark, and all other health card and driver’s licence renewals for that parent, their spouse and their children up to age 16 would be co-ordinated to match that date.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ontario-liberals-to-waive-fees-if-renewing-licence-or-health-card-takes-over-20-minutes/article2126622/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Ontario

Commuters in the Greater Toronto Area will get a refund if their trains are more than 15 minutes late, under a revised promise by Premier Dalton McGuinty that includes several exceptions.

The refunds, which the Liberals would implement next year if they are re-elected this fall, will not apply to extreme weather, police investigations, accidents or medical emergencies.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/mcguinty-vows-to-go-ahead-with-transit-refund-for-late-trains/article2125226/

This stuff makes you feel all fuzzy and warm.

As far as the late fees and transit refunds are concerned, isn't Premier Dad worried that he may irk the unionized workforce? I mean, public servants will essentially be going back to the days of the punch clock.

[Topaz]

Isn't that he way politics has turned to the worse? Buy votes with promises and throwing out money to the voters hoping they will support the party? This promise though could end up costing the province, at least , in small cities or towns. How? Well, in my area, there is only one person most of the time there and if people want freebies, all they have to do is plan a time to visit the license bureau as a group of 10+ and more than one will walk out with freebies.

[Remiel]

Sounds like the system could easily be gamed with such a guarantee. Find a big group of people that need to renew, all go at once to destroy the 20 minute count, and pool the savings among everyone.

[mentalfloss]

It's becoming very clear now that both the Liberals and Conservatives have some pretty gaping logical holes in their platform promises.

Edited August 12, 2011 by mentalfloss

[capricorn]

Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne says they haven't worked out how much this will cost the government. However she says she doesn't think they'll be paying out a lot of cash because Service Ontario outlets that are falling behind now will up their service levels.

http://www.newstalk1010.com/News/localnews/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10272566

Oh goody. We're being told this promise will cost peanuts to the promise. Just one question. Does upping the service level mean hiring more public servants?

[Wild Bill]

http://www.newstalk1010.com/News/localnews/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10272566

Oh goody. We're being told this promise will cost peanuts to the promise. Just one question. Does upping the service level mean hiring more public servants?

This kind of silly thinking seems trendy among management today, both in the public and the private sectors.

For instance, has anyone noticed the new 'buttons' at Home Depot? So you don't have to wait for help at certain stations like for paint mixing or board cutting, they have installed "buttons' we can press which will madly keep paging store clerks.

The catcher of course that they never hired any more store clerks! The usual reason you had to wait was because the too small number of clerks were busy with too many customers. Now, while they're frantically trying to cope, they have the added pressure from the 'buttons'.

This is Dalton style management at its finest. Don't solve a problem, especially when that might cost money. Do something that APPEARS to solve a problem! If most people buy it, you've won!

[Boges]

I hate going to a Service Ontario kiosk. I despise the type of people that work there. Pencil pushing tax collectors that probably make a nice living just taking money from people that are forced to go there on their birthday.

Other than your Healthcard, license and sticker I fail to see any reason why anyone needs to go to these places. All these services could probably be provided over the internet anyway.

You could easily have an internet form you could fill out and have your sticker mailed to you like your healthcard and license currently are.

But NOOOO!! we have to feed the gumint trough. Sickening!

[CANADIEN]

This kind of silly thinking seems trendy among management today, both in the public and the private sectors.

For instance, has anyone noticed the new 'buttons' at Home Depot? So you don't have to wait for help at certain stations like for paint mixing or board cutting, they have installed "buttons' we can press which will madly keep paging store clerks.

The catcher of course that they never hired any more store clerks! The usual reason you had to wait was because the too small number of clerks were busy with too many customers. Now, while they're frantically trying to cope, they have the added pressure from the 'buttons'.

This is Dalton style management at its finest. Don't solve a problem, especially when that might cost money. Do something that APPEARS to solve a problem! If most people buy it, you've won!

Promising faster while cutting the number of people providing the service and not providing more efficient ways of accessing the servie (like simplified procedures, easier Internet access). Sound very logical to me... not.

[Boges]

Promising faster while cutting the number of people providing the service and not providing more efficient ways of accessing the servie (like simplified procedures, easier Internet access). Sound very logical to me... not.

Hey Fuck you buddy!

Yours,

OPSEU

[CANADIEN]

Hey Fuck you buddy!

Yours,

OPSEU

Yawn