The resignations of two high profile ministers earlier this month prompted Dalton McGuinty to shuffle his cabinet. In all, 15 Liberal members were involved in the shuffle, including three ministers who got shuffled right out of a job.

What was shocking is none of the three ministers who got the boot from Dalton McGuinty are the ones running the province’s three major economic portfolios – Dwight Duncan, Sandra Pupatello and Peter Fonseca.

Duncan, who has been the Minister of Finance for two years, Pupatello, who has been the Minister of Economic Development and Trade for more than three years, and Fonseca, who has been Minister of Labour for well over one year – along with Dalton McGuinty – are the architects of Ontario’s massive job losses and record debt.

These were the thinkers behind the so-called “jobs budget”, which promised to create 140,000 new jobs in 2009. The reality is the economy lost 141,600 jobs in the last year. In fact, Ontario shed 16,600 jobs in December alone – by far the worst economic performance in the country.

It wasn’t always this way. There was a time when companies, both foreign and home grown, saw our province as a place they wanted to invest in because there were abundant opportunities waiting for them here. After six years Dalton McGuinty has brought the Ontario economy to an embarrassing new low.

Last week, the public finally learned that the McGuinty Government signed a sweetheart green energy deal with the foreign owned, multinational corporation Samsung. Despite agreeing to hand them more than a billion dollars in government subsidies, Dalton McGuinty received no job guarantees whatsoever in the deal.

Worse still, Ontario families and businesses will be forced to pay some $437 million in subsidies, above and beyond what is offered in the expensive Green Energy Act. This works out to a $303,000 subsidy for every permanent new job Dalton McGuinty is promising, but can not guarantee.

That is unaffordable, unrealistic and a bad deal for Ontario families. While it is indicative of the way the current government does business, these kinds of economic bribes are clearly not the way to create sustainable jobs in Ontario.

The Ontario PC Caucus has called for the Auditor General to sign off on the Samsung deal before it is allowed to advance any further. We are willing to bet the Auditor will not like what he sees.

Dalton McGuinty and his economic ministers are responsible for Ontario’s $25 billion deficit, the billion dollar eHealth boondoggle, a $3 billion HST tax grab – and now this multi-billion dollar sweetheart Samsung deal made at the expense of Ontario businesses and consumers. Until the position of Premier also gets shuffled, we can expect all of these problems to continue.