Right in the centre - Turning the big ship around

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Published on Thursday, June 9, 2016

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

Manitoba had an NDP government for 17 years. The voters overwhelmingly switched to a PC Manitoba government in last spring’s election. Last fall, voters tossed out a CPC federal government in favour of a Liberal majority. Voters, in both cases, wanted a big change. It’s interesting to watch how slowly actual change comes.

Federally, the voters were promised a quick decision on marijuana. It didn’t happen. There were promises of big changes in the field of assisted suicide. That didn’t happen either and the bill is being delayed. Now the bigger debate is whether the government can pass a bill that will satisfy the Supreme Court of Canada. Certainly, the Liberals could pass any bill they like, but the Senate may or may not approve it.

The bigger part of the debate is whether the court will approve it. Isn’t it wonderful that we can have a law voted on by 338 duly elected MPs and have it overturned by seven appointed judges? Great system isn’t it?

The consistent message across Canada and in Manitoba is that change takes a long time. Ideas spring up a dime a dozen. Decisions take a lot longer. Action takes even longer. It’s a wonder our country or our province actually functions at all. Don’t even start on how slow things happen at the municipal level.

Manitobans who voted PC are disappointed that the last NDP fiscal year came in at a billion dollar deficit. That means that the province spent a 1,000 million dollars more than they took in. That’s over $1.75 million a day more than they took in. Wow. What’s also disappointing is that the PC Manitoba Party isn’t going to reduce it all that much. They are going to conduct a review of spending that will start this fall and take heaven knows how long to complete.

Governments just move slowly and it doesn’t seem to matter who is in power, it’s just the way it is. They say it takes a long time to turn a big ship. Government has become a way bigger ship than it should be. Why has that happened? The answer lies in the pages of history. Canada, and in fact most of North America, at one time had little or no government intervention. Certainly, the first people known to inhabit this continent had some local governing, but it was pretty much a tribal free trade situation. There wasn’t much government or government control. The British Crown granted two guys a mandate to develop most of North America and in 1670, the Hudson’s Bay Company was formed. Until the early 1800s, the HBC pretty much ruled North America. In 1870, they sold a huge amount of land to what was becoming Canada. It wasn’t long before tax driven initiatives were shaping our future. The government put a huge amount of money into the Canadian Pacific Railway and we have been going back to the taxpayer for money with an ever increasing intensity ever since.

Little happens in Canada without the conversation quickly swinging over to “I wonder how many government grants we can get?” It doesn’t matter if it’s health care, education, infrastructure, community facilities, community programs, whatever. Everyone has their hand out to government. It is said that one third of the working population works for the government. Many more are either on pension or depend on government contracts. That’s all well and good, but those who take the initiative and actually create jobs have a huge tax and regulation burden that is heavy at best and oppressive at worst.

We need a much greater private sector involvement in our economy. Many governments, unions and voters don’t see that need and so it will indeed take a long time to turn the big ship around.