Waddell: Out of proportion

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Published on Wednesday, March 27, 2013

By: Ken Waddell

myWestman.ca

As provinces and the federal government all look at their budgets at this time of year, it’s time to pause and reflect where our money is going.

Last week the president of Red River Community College was in the news as the Canadian Taxpayers Federation pointed out that in addition to a salary reported to be$230,000, she had rung up some pretty fancy expenses. The most notorious may have been a $200 pair of golf shoes on the college tab. There were a number of other expenses as well that were just as questionable. That said, there’s a deeper problem.

The deeper issue is that compensation for public officials has somewhat gotten out of hand. It’s also gotten way out of proportion. The prime minister of Canada is paid about $300,000 per year. The premier of Manitoba about $143,000, a Manitoba cabinet minster about $125,000 and an MLA about $85,000. Now those salaries are pretty good by today’s standards.

So the question that has to be asked is why do we pay college presidents more than the premier? Why do we pay regional health authority executives more than the health minister? Now a person could also go on a major rant about private sector salaries and with good reason. We pay bank presidents more than they are worth and corporate executives sometimes get astronomical wages as well. Then there’s hockey players -- well, some hockey players.

The private sector is a whole different kettle of fish. We could get cheaper bankers, cheaper executives and cheaper hockey players if governments didn’t enforce monopolies. We could also get cheaper milk, eggs and poultry if the governments hadn’t put those products under marketing boards over the past 50 years.

But let’s stick to public sector jobs. I return to questions: why would college presidents get twice as much money as the minister of education to whom they answer? It makes no sense at all. In my business, there are employees that have made more money than I have. In addition, my wife and I have invested  a lot of money to build our business. However, I chose to be in business and there are advantages such as some business tax deductions and being able to have some flexibility in our work schedule.

There’s also the advantage that some day, we may sell our business or pass it on to our children or grandchildren. If there’s a capital gain, we will benefit from that so having employees make more than me makes some sense.

In the public sector though, the premier or the minister of education makes their salary and they make it for whatever years they are in office. They can be booted out at the next election. There’s no guarantees. However, some of our public servants make twice what their bosses make and aren’t likely to ever lose their job. If they do, they often find another one in a similar position either in Manitoba or somewhere else.

Our whole federal and provincial budgeting system is screwed up. Not only are there too many people paid way too much for the position they hold, there are programs that one has to just shake their head at when reviewing a list of government expenditures. It doesn’t take long to go on the internet and find out every organization or business that earned more than $50,000 from the government of Manitoba. The majority are legitimate expenses, easily justified but some are just plain silly.

We need to look at every expenditure we make in the public service and ask ourselves “Are we really getting our money’s worth?” I personally find it very difficult to see university and college fees go up when the highest paid people at universities are paid what they get. Same as in health care, really folks, are those salaries really necessary?

Some would say things will never change but I can guarantee you that every European country that is facing bankruptcy is wishing they had made those changes. I am not talking about theft or corruption, just overpayment of management. And overpaid compared to what the political bosses actually make. How can we expect to have the top people in government cabinet minister positions and we pay people much lower on the decision making scale so much more.

It’s backwards and it’s just plain wrong.