Doc wrote:
Also, of late I'd tend to question the use of the word "secure" in your comment?
I can't disagree with you there! You know what pisses me off? I don't have an issue with Ornge or MOH or whoever coming in and operating directly on behalf of the government in the interest of raising the bar where it needs to be done. There are some shady operators out there, who provide crappy working conditions, pay poorly, and the owners are there to maximize their profits at the expense of others or the quality of their product. What ORNGE is doing is no better, as is being made clear.
Doc wrote:
Also, of late I'd tend to question the use of the word "secure" in your comment?
I can't disagree with you there! You know what pisses me off? I don't have an issue with Ornge or MOH or whoever coming in and operating directly on behalf of the government in the interest of raising the bar where it needs to be done. There are some shady operators out there, who provide crappy working conditions, pay poorly, and the owners are there to maximize their profits at the expense of others or the quality of their product. What ORNGE is doing is no better, as is being made clear.
There is NO way the private sector could afford to get into the ring with Ornge when it comes to equipment and pay scales. Now we're starting to see why. NO operation in the world can make a profit, operating the way Ornge has been. The money just isn't there....at least not "honest" money.
If the government wants to "raise the bar", let them make more money available to the private sector, so these guys can pay their pilots properly, and provide better working conditions within the existing framework. There was NO need to waltz in with 260 million worth of new airplanes and create unemployment. Imagine the service the private sector could provide with an injection of even 1/3 of that money?
Keep in mind, there are "shady operators...." simply because pilots choose to work there.
I was dissapointed when Ornge didn't use Textron (Bell) helicopters out of Montreal for there new rides They are Canadian, kind of, and make a decent chopper. I am assuming they would run for half the cost or less than the monsters the eventually bought....I know nothing of the details, features ect and maybe it all came down to Ornge wanting the heated rotors...which still dont work... but when you see those new Orng choppers running (which is super impressive) I see alot of dollars burning for a government thats closing schools and emergency rooms.
OK...The story has been updated. Note the PRIVATE CHEF!!!!!!
ORNGE air ambulance boss Dr. Chris Mazza was paid $1.4 million a year, making him the highest publicly paid official in Ontario.
The Star is revealing this after two weeks of stonewalling by the air ambulance service.
Health Minister Deb Matthews called Mazza’s salary and others at the non-profit ORNGE “outrageous, shocking and unacceptable.”
That salary puts him $600,000 ahead of the highest paid hospital chief in the province and almost $65,000 ahead of the president of Ontario Power Generation. Mazza left his post on indefinite medical leave Thursday, departing from the “crystal palace,” the Toronto airport area headquarters where he once enjoyed a cold smoothie delivered to him at 3 p.m., fitness facilities and fine meals paid for by ORNGE.
Forensic auditors from the province, with orders from the health minister to “follow the money,” have been sent in to his well-appointed ORNGE offices to find out if public dollars were misspent at the agency created to help sick and injured Ontario residents.
“When you consider the financial pressures in health care and the pressures on health-care workers, it is very hard to see taxpayers’ money spent on outrageous salaries,” Matthews said in an interview.
The Star obtained Mazza’s current annual salary, but was unable to discover the salaries of at least five other top ORNGE officials. None is listed on the province’s Sunshine List. ORNGE said Thursday it has provided information to the province, but due to privacy laws cannot release the information.
Matthews, asked to comment on the salaries, would only say that, as of Thursday, she has all of the executive pay packages (including bonuses) at ORNGE, but privacy rules forbid her from releasing them. She would not provide Mazza’s salary, but did say his was the most “outrageous.”
The forensic auditors from the Ministry of Finance have been asked to determine how much of the executive compensation at ORNGE comes from public sources and how much from private. One former board member, who now works internationally for ORNGE, designed the compensation package.
Two weeks ago, the Star launched a series of stories on ORNGE, its founder, Mazza, and the level of care it is providing. The first story dealt with a spider web of for-profit companies that the non-profit ORNGE had created. In short, those companies had the effect of shielding top salaries from the public eye of the Public Sector Salary Disclosure List. The Star has also revealed that this web of companies created by Mazza has received $6.7 million from the Italian company that sold helicopters to ORNGE.
ORNGE, in its defence, maintains that no public money has been used on any of its for-profit initiatives. It says it is not required to disclose salaries for that reason. A spokesperson said the money was raised by issuing bonds. What ORNGE will not discuss is where the interest payments to investors in those bonds are coming from. The forensic auditors will be looking to see if any of the $150 million that taxpayers contribute to ORNGE each year pays that interest.
One of the for-profit companies Mazza created was called ORNGE PEEL. Wednesday, the peel began to unravel at a late-night meeting at the “crystal palace.” Board members of the profit and non-profit (some people sit on both boards) met. Mazza had given talks via webcam and in a town hall during the week, telling employees that his attackers were jealous of him and that people were just not ready for the type of revolution in emergency medicine he wanted to bring Ontario. By late Wednesday evening, a decision was made that Mazza would take medical leave.
Information in this story comes from documents and also interviews with ORNGE officials, pilots and paramedics. All are required to sign nondisclosure agreements. For that reason, the Star has provided them with anonymity. Thursday, at a town-hall meeting, ORNGE employees were once again reminded they must not talk to outsiders.
Once, Mazza was a simple emergency room doctor at Sunnybrook Hospital. He fell in love with the concept of the air ambulance and did some work for one of the small companies that provided medical flights to the Ministry of Health in those days. He told people there was a better way to provide air ambulance service.
By 2005, Mazza had convinced Liberal Health Minister George Smitherman to turn over the province’s air ambulance system to him as a non-profit. All provincial assets were transferred to Mazza’s non-profit (eventually called ORNGE because air ambulances are often orange) for a nominal fee of $1.
In the words of provincial conservative critic Frank Klees, Mazza was an “empire builder.” Klees raised the issues of lack of oversight on ORNGE over the past eight months in the legislature.
“(Premier) Dalton McGuinty and (Health Minister) Deb Matthews defended Mazza. They defended what was indefensible. Now it is time for Dalton McGuinty to take control of an out-of-control agency,” Klees said Thursday.
The Star’s investigation has found an organization in chaos. Well-meaning employees — from doctors to pilots to paramedics — are unhappy. Much of the focus is now on their for-profit business. A corporate plan describes how the for-profit companies will “leverage” the assets and success of the non-profit ORNGE. For using the publicly funded ORNGE, Mazza said he planned to pay back to the province 3 per cent of gross profits.
Middle managers, paramedics and pilots at ORNGE call the newly purchased office building near Pearson International Airport the “crystal palace.” It has luxurious offices. At times there has been a personal chef to provide meals, sources have told the Star. And, for the finicky Mazza, an ice-cold smoothie at 3 p.m. There is a private gym for executives. Executive travel of late has included trips to Italy and Brazil.
The provincial auditor general is nearing the end of a year-long value-for-money audit of ORNGE. Among the issues he has been encouraged to look at is the blending of private and public funds at ORNGE.
In one case, an ORNGE charity purchased a high-end wakeboard boat, an Air Nautique. Mazza, whose 14-year-old son died in a ski accident in 2006, created a charity to help reduce injuries in extreme sports. ORNGE briefly considered purchasing a large, water-filled quarry near Kitchener and the boat was to be used for water sports for youth. The boat was put in storage for two years. ORNGE spokesman James MacDonald said the boat was hardly used and no public money was expended on its purchase.
The Star has tried for months to interview Mazza. He cancelled a recent plan for an interview Monday.
In an internal memo to staff Thursday morning from ORNGE chair Rainer Beltzner, the publicly funded air ambulance agency announced that president and CEO Dr. Chris Mazza has taken an “indefinite medical leave.”
“The board of directors for ORNGE and ORNGE Global met last night and I am writing to inform all staff that Dr. Mazza will be on indefinite medical leave,” the chair said in his memo to ORNGE employees.
In Mazza’s absence, senior executive Tom Lepine will be interim president of the non-profit ORNGE, and an ORNGE vice-president, Maria Renzella, will be interim president and CEO of ORNGE Global, the for-profit entity.
“I ask that everyone respect his privacy and that of his family during this time,” the chair said in the memo.
To all the PC12 pilots at Ornge. Wasaya is looking for PC12 drivers. Might not even have to pay the bond. Air Bravo might be looking. I'd seriously consider bailing. Oh, and the last pilot out.....don't forget to turn off the lights.
FL280 wrote:Maybe not Bravo, if the money stops flowing to Ornge, it stops to Bravo as well. And SkyCare and Wabusk and anyone else involved in the medevac world, until at least the province or maybe that third party administrator guy from Winnipeg that is running Atawapiskat can help out in his spare time!
You know you're dreaming, right? Ornge has sucked a huge amount of business OUT of the aforementioned companies. The medevac world will continue (just like the pop and chips world) because we do need it. Without Ornge, everything will revert back to the pre-Ornge days. Patients will continue to receive government sponsered trips to medical treatment. Always have, always will. But, the tax payer will be getting what they pay for. Point is....it was getting done before Ornge......it'll get done after Ornge.
FL280 wrote:And I'm sure like everything in government it'll all be a smooth as glass transition right? You're the one dreaming Doc.
Nobody said anything about it being "smooth". However, medevacs have always been a way of life, without paying some greedy basterd 1.4 million a year, without the bright Ornge chopper with sidecar, without the 260-270 million dumped on the fancy single engine airplanes. Even Hellen Keller could "see" through that one. Seems you can't?
Im to lazy to look. But considering their job ad a few weeks back. I bet the word is screw it. I knew something was fishy with Ornge, especially when they announced the purchase of 5 PC12's and in actual fact secretly bought 3 more.
I hope Mazza gets jailed or Ornge folds and we go back to what worked before! Private sector companies doing the work.
I remember going for an interview there a while back. And the guy on the interview panel had asked me my opinion on what I thought about of the asthetics of there office building. I seriously sat there and was going to say, who gives a shit! But he felt I had a tough time answering that question when asking my opinion on there Crystal Palace. When in fact I couldn't give a shit and couldnt believe this was an interview question.
They had a press release for 5 airplanes in 2009 but never publicly announced the remainder I dont think.
FL280 wrote:I see maybe Ornge restructuring, maybe other members representing the public and the investors on the BOD. They actually bought 10 PC12's all together. Not sure if it was secret though?
Perhaps allowing the private sector to operate the PC12's? Or, send them all back to FK in YQT! But, I hope they go TU.
So there is evidence that the helicopter company gave donations (kickback) to the "For Profit" company ... do you not think that the same scheme was in place for the PC12's - wake up pilots / staff/ am's / all you arm chair quarterbacks - this is a tough business with minor profits. If it sounds too good to be true ...
FL280, you're swinging at windmills. I can hear the rats splashing as they scurry off the sinking ship! Face it. Ornge is DISHONEST! You may read it as the problem is at the top. Perhaps it is....but Ornge should be dismantled and the business given back to the private sector. There's an elephant in the room. An Ornge one!
Here is my 2bits worth. the liberals in ontario are in a minorty gov't now ergo shit will hit the fan and the axes will roll to c.y.a. to hold on in power.Never underestimate the gold plated mpp pensions and benefits to motivate them to clean house at any ones expense but their own.
To which means that he pc12's now operated by ornge will go out to tender as it should have done in the first place. probably as 5yr option for renewal mgt contract or if the stink is bad enough the contract will include the pc12 the helicopter are already under chc mgt //which leaves in the province 2 -5 qualified companies to bid on the tender.
1/air bravo may 2003 they got their first pc12 though due to owner checkered history and recent personal issues that might be a steeper hill to climb they one would think.
2/ thunder airlines as they were first at the proof of concept for the pc12 in 1998-2000 ,
3/ northern airborne solutions .
4/wasaya if it so desired
5/and that other if you can't beat them buy them out discovery air.
in the end the medics will scream there so hard done by the pilots will whine about having to work longer hours and no more 4star hotel and meals. life will move on and more patients per day will be moved by the private air operators through standing offer agreements . orgne will be a communciations desk occ and certification for the medics . happy holidays
I can't disagree with you there! You know what pisses me off? I don't have an issue with Ornge or MOH or whoever coming in and operating directly on behalf of the government in the interest of raising the bar where it needs to be done. There are some shady operators out there, who provide crappy working conditions, pay poorly, and the owners are there to maximize their profits at the expense of others or the quality of their product. What ORNGE is doing is no better, as is being made clear.
the pilots will whine about having to work longer hours 
and no more 4star hotel and meals. life will move on and more patients per day will be moved by the private air operators through standing offer agreements . orgne will be a communciations desk occ and certification for the medics . happy holidays
