KITCHENER, Ont. – Prime Minister Stephen Harper is retaliating against Ontario’s premier, who slammed Ottawa for failing to help a Toronto woman stranded in Kenya.
Premier Dalton McGuinty has accused the federal government of failing to stand up for Canadians by abandoning Suuad Hagi Mohamud in Kenya for nearly three months.
Harper defended his government’s actions today, but couldn’t resist taking a partisan jab at McGuinty and a growing scandal over eHealth.
Harper says Ottawa has given the provinces a lot of money to create electronic health records, and McGuinty should take a look at “rectifying problems” in that area.
It was a thinly veiled reference to McGuinty’s woes over eHealth Ontario, a provincial agency that awarded lucrative contracts to consultants without competitive tenders.
The value of those untendered contracts was eventually revealed to be around $16 million, with the biggest ones going to companies the opposition parties say have ties to McGuinty’s Liberal government.
The agency is currently looking for a new CEO after its previous chief executive, Sarah Kramer, was abruptly removed from the job in June.
Opposition parties are demanding an inquiry and the resignation of Health Minister David Caplan over the eHealth scandal.
