(Aired on March 10, 2010)
The cuts to welfare benefits in this month's provincial budget are a little curious.
Consider this. It's one thing if you actually have an ideology and you stick to it. For example, if you happen to believe that poor people deserve to be poor - that they are nothing more than a drag on the public purse - then the cuts make sense. If you believe that because a person lives on the street, they don't need a shelter allowance, you can eliminate that $75 per month. After all, you got elected. The majority of people who care must agree with you. You can axe funeral support for sponsored immigrants. You can cut and cut and not feel it's irresponsible.
But here's what doesn't make sense. Slash Gordon and the B.C. Liberals also believe in fiscal responsibility - doing what's most cost effective in the long run. Keeping that in mind, other money-saving measures in the budget do not make sense. In the long run, cuts to birth control and dental coverage for those on welfare will not be fiscally responsible. Neither will axing the bottled water supplement for people who have compromised immune systems. In both of these cases, the province will be paying more for medical care down the road. It's save now, spend later.
If you really want to save money now and pay for it in the long term, what should be getting removed is the new half-billion dollar retractable roof for B.C. Place. After all, if thousands of homeless people can't have proper shelter, why should the B.C. Lions?
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Arts Groups Caught in Government Vacuum
(Aired on March 9, 2010)
We shouldn't be surprised that the provincial government is cutting money to the arts and culture. When budget cuts come, arts and culture are always the first cut. The government has reduced the amount it gives from gaming revenue by over $30-million this year, mainly to groups which target adults. This, however, is a bit deceiving because theatre and cultural organizations like theatre groups reach out to all ages.
It's a sad commentary when this type of thing happens. The arts are such a valuable part of our mosaic and to cut their funding leaves a gaping hole in that important part of our life.
It's difficult, of course, to rationalize spending money on the arts and culture and reducing money for health and education. Obviously that's a pretty tough sell. But the reality is that government wastes so much money on unnecessary expenditures that if someone really took a careful look at spending, they could probably find enough money for the arts as well as health and education. Governments are like big gaping black holes in space. Money just seems to get swallowed up inside some big space and no one knows where it goes and how to stop it. Imagine, if you will, this giant vacuum cleaner going around the province just sucking up your money as it goes by. That's government. Not just the province, but the feds as well.
I don't imagine we'll ever get a clear handle on where our tax dollars go. I think we all fully realize how much it costs to run health services and education. But there is so much that seems to be taken in that never seems to be accounted for.
I often wonder what would happen if we just shut down all our government offices and let people fend for themselves. Not a practical solution, but we had this thing called zero based budgeting become the watchword a few years ago. Maybe that's what we should do with government services. Start from scratch and see where it leads. I'll bet we'd be pleasantly surprised at what we could do away with.
We shouldn't be surprised that the provincial government is cutting money to the arts and culture. When budget cuts come, arts and culture are always the first cut. The government has reduced the amount it gives from gaming revenue by over $30-million this year, mainly to groups which target adults. This, however, is a bit deceiving because theatre and cultural organizations like theatre groups reach out to all ages.
It's a sad commentary when this type of thing happens. The arts are such a valuable part of our mosaic and to cut their funding leaves a gaping hole in that important part of our life.
It's difficult, of course, to rationalize spending money on the arts and culture and reducing money for health and education. Obviously that's a pretty tough sell. But the reality is that government wastes so much money on unnecessary expenditures that if someone really took a careful look at spending, they could probably find enough money for the arts as well as health and education. Governments are like big gaping black holes in space. Money just seems to get swallowed up inside some big space and no one knows where it goes and how to stop it. Imagine, if you will, this giant vacuum cleaner going around the province just sucking up your money as it goes by. That's government. Not just the province, but the feds as well.
I don't imagine we'll ever get a clear handle on where our tax dollars go. I think we all fully realize how much it costs to run health services and education. But there is so much that seems to be taken in that never seems to be accounted for.
I often wonder what would happen if we just shut down all our government offices and let people fend for themselves. Not a practical solution, but we had this thing called zero based budgeting become the watchword a few years ago. Maybe that's what we should do with government services. Start from scratch and see where it leads. I'll bet we'd be pleasantly surprised at what we could do away with.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Budgets Could Have Included More Vision
(Aired on March 4, 2010)
While specific items in the B.C. and federal budgets this week are of concern, of more concern to me is the long term impact that these budgets have. In the B.C. budget Tuesday, it's obvious the government has no faith in the immediate future of the resource industries in our province. Laying off a vast number of government employees in the resource sectors indicates to me that the government doesn't expect these industries to rebound very quickly, and there isn't much of a plan to try and stimulate things.
Of more concern than the lack of immediate funding for health and education is the lack of any indication of some sort of structure to revamp how we deal with both those major issues. We know that both systems are broken, but there's no indication of any strategic planning to figure out a better way.
Similarly with the federal budget today. While we are going to spend a limited amount of money in the last budget to deal with stimulus funding, of much greater concern is the move to loosen investment rules in key sectors like telecommunications, satellite and uranium industries. This could cause serious job loss if big American companies take over phone and mobile companies, or take over broadcast operations. Ultimately that could lead to control of much of our future growth in these areas in American hands. And we all know how problematic that control can be when we look at the power of American automakers.
I'm all for free trade, but when Americans can implement Buy American plans that hurt us, and yet we can be forced to ship our water to the U.S. with no concern over our own needs, that scares the hell out of me.
As I say, it's not the line by line items that worry me about budgets and throne speeches, it's where those long-range plans are leading us. And in some cases, they may be leading us down the proverbial garden path.
While specific items in the B.C. and federal budgets this week are of concern, of more concern to me is the long term impact that these budgets have. In the B.C. budget Tuesday, it's obvious the government has no faith in the immediate future of the resource industries in our province. Laying off a vast number of government employees in the resource sectors indicates to me that the government doesn't expect these industries to rebound very quickly, and there isn't much of a plan to try and stimulate things.
Of more concern than the lack of immediate funding for health and education is the lack of any indication of some sort of structure to revamp how we deal with both those major issues. We know that both systems are broken, but there's no indication of any strategic planning to figure out a better way.
Similarly with the federal budget today. While we are going to spend a limited amount of money in the last budget to deal with stimulus funding, of much greater concern is the move to loosen investment rules in key sectors like telecommunications, satellite and uranium industries. This could cause serious job loss if big American companies take over phone and mobile companies, or take over broadcast operations. Ultimately that could lead to control of much of our future growth in these areas in American hands. And we all know how problematic that control can be when we look at the power of American automakers.
I'm all for free trade, but when Americans can implement Buy American plans that hurt us, and yet we can be forced to ship our water to the U.S. with no concern over our own needs, that scares the hell out of me.
As I say, it's not the line by line items that worry me about budgets and throne speeches, it's where those long-range plans are leading us. And in some cases, they may be leading us down the proverbial garden path.
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