Right in the centre - Hard decisions
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- Published on Thursday, August 18, 2016
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
Manitoba’s relatively new Progressive Conservative government has only been in office for a little over 100 days. They are being criticized for not moving fast enough on some of their promises like an Emergency Room strategy and cutting costs to reduce the deficit. It’s a bit early to start criticizing but it’s certainly not too early to examine some of the roadblocks the conservatives face. Let’s see what they are.
1. Change is hard. Every time a government makes a change, there is huge backlash. Some people just don’t want to change, some will fight it as it may cause some job losses or job shifting. Sometimes changes cause more problems than they solve and there’s always the fear factor. Sometime it’s just easier do things same old, same old rather than actually change.
2. The public service unions don’t want anything to change unless it means higher wages and greater benefits for the workers. While front line workers usually have the best interests of the customers at heart, the collective mindset of a union tends to switch gears. The union mentality is to look after the workers rather than the customers and that has always been the unions’ downfall. Customers, be they in health care, education or general public service sectors deserve an increasing level of service competence and that sometimes runs at cross purposes with the provider’s comfort level. The problem is that in private business, a user of a service can go elsewhere, in public service, that’s usually not an option. In the private sector, a provider has to compete for customers, in the public service, there is little or no competition for customers.
3. Lots of people want to see cuts as long as it isn’t going to affect them. As long as it’s the other guy that gets cut, it might be OK but not if it’s a person’s own job or area that’s affected.
4. Everybody knows how to scream and protest. If a cut, or even a change is on the horizon, the public sector unions know how to mobilize media and public opinion to the point that governments run for cover.
5. If a private company is going broke (like our government is going broke) the private company can increase income or decrease expenses. They also have the option of selling out, shutting down or going broke. Those options are very limited in the public sector. No matter how much health or education costs, it isn’t going to go broke, be shut down or sold off. I get that, but without the “threat” or at least the prospect of going broke, being shut down or sold off, a major incentive for achieving excellence is removed from the public sector.
The kinds of changes that are needed are going to have to come and there will be protests and a lot of upset people. The alternative is a bankrupt province. Manitoba has been technically in bankruptcy for decades. Thirty-five per cent of our budget comes from the federal government. When Ottawa hiccups, Manitoba goes into seizures. In the 1990s, the federal Liberals cut back on payments to the provinces. It made for very hard times in Manitoba.
So facing bankruptcy, what should Manitoba do? They need to cut all grants to businesses or communities. Yes, you read that correctly. If a province is overspending by a billion dollars a year they need to increase taxes or make some cuts. Increasing taxes affects everyone adversely and is a business killer, so making cuts is the only real solution. There has been a sort of moratorium on capital spending and that’s tough but inevitable. There should be moratorium on grants to businesses, to communities and organizations.
Any capital project that is contemplated should be done by the private sector under a private-public partnership with very strict “on-budget and on-schedule provisions”. Many government projects grow and grow in cost long after the tender is granted and time doesn’t seem to mean anything in a government project.
No schools should be built wherever there are empty classrooms within easy bussing distance (eg. Eden and Brookdale for the Neepawa area).
Manitoba elected 40 PC MLAs. We have to let them be conservative and not only conservative but creative. If we keep throwing objections and stumbling blocks in their way, nothing will change, even though we voted overwhelmingly for change.
