Tillsonburg News: There's really no good reason why government can't operate in a business-like manner – efficiently, effectively, and with a minimum of waste.Hey a politician who gets it!
One tactic would be to stop doing unnecessary things. By eliminating that which is obsolete, duplicative, or just plain silly, we can eliminate much of the waste of taxpayer's money.
Exactly. Let's start with the biggest unnecessary thing we've got: mandatory taxation. Not only is forcing people to pay for something obsolete, duplicative, and just plain silly – it's violent and cannot solve the social problems this province (and country) have.
By eliminating wasteful spending, we can help create government programs and services that make sense, get results, and give us our money's worth.
By eliminating mandatory taxes, we can eliminate wasteful spending. Toby Barrett, I like the subject of your editorial. Allow me to add my two cents to help flesh out your ideas. You're on the right track: wasteful spending is going to be Ontario's ruin.
Waste also means higher taxes, and less money in our pocket. Wasteful spending has stuck Ontario families with the largest consumption and income tax hikes in the province's history. But even these tax hikes to increase revenue are not enough to prevent, what I refer to as, the 'Dalton Deficit Disorder' – a deficit pegged at $18.7 billion this year. This and other accumulated deficits, since 2003, will double Ontario's debt by 2012.
Yep. Although the Deficit Disorder isn't just Dalton's disease. It plagues all governments, political parties and bureaucracies. I believe the disorder comes from collecting revenue by force. Eliminate this, and financing these outrageous debts and unfunded liabilities becomes much harder. This is the only tactic that will put Ontario on the road to efficiency.
Waste means less money for key services that Ontario families need most, such as frontline healthcare. Mr. McGuinty's new regional health care bureaucracies have diverted $250 million away from frontline care. As well, the doubling of Ontario's debt is probably the biggest threat to the future of our health care system.
Our health-care is the byproduct of the market choosing time as a price because money isn't allowed as an option. By allowing monetary profits to indicate the best allocation of resources, key services will improve. A profit-and-loss structure to enterprise far exceeds the arbitrary decision making of bureaucracies. There is a lot of empirical evidence to support this, as well as reason.
Wasteful spending has seemingly become de rigeur with this Ontario government. Be it the $1-billion eHealth boondoggle, extravagant expenses at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, or the ballooning Ontario Power Authority. The Ontario Electronic Stewardship Program collected $44 million in eco-taxes last year while only achieving 2% of its recycling targets. Then there's the subsidized secret energy deals, the $1 billion in subsidized electricity flowing to Quebec and the border states, and on and on .....
Again, I tend to agree with everything you've written here, Toby. So I anticipate your solution.
In an effort to tighten the belt on government's waste-line, I am joining Opposition Leader Hudak in encouraging residents to check out, and relate their own tales of government waste at, www.WasteWatchers.ca - a website dedicated to getting Ontario spending into shape. I also encourage area residents to continue to forward ideas and tactics to eliminate wasteful spending by contacting my offices at toby.barrett@pc.ola.org.
So like the federal Liberals, Hudak wants to alleviate government waste by creating a website?
In the end, government waste begets waste - creating a culture of wasteful spending that trickles down throughout the bureaucracy.
The solution here is to stop the bureaucracy in its tracks. Convert these wealth-destroying enterprises by turning them over to market incentives: supply and demand, profit-and-loss, voluntary payment. Wasteful spending is inevitable when the money being spent is collected by coercion.
The fact is, the buck – our buck – stops at the top; at the Premier's office where unaccountable, free spending ways create a snowball effect rolling our money and our economy downhill....
Technically the buck doesn't stop at the Premier's office. Even if you ignore the PM's office, and the Bank of Canada Governor's office, we're still faced with the problem that the big players on Wall Street have too much influence over Ontario's economy, as well the US Government, international institutions like the IMF, World Bank, OECD. These are all effects of the core problem – the State receives its revenue by force instead of voluntary payment. The State is the only institution that gets away with this. If the people of Ontario want to see real results, real improvement and less waste then the fundamentals of the State need to change.
Ontario families are the ones' stuck with the bill. They are not getting their money's worth and they cannot afford this kind of wasteful spending.
Indeed, Ontario individuals cannot afford to keep relinquishing more of their private property to a small group of people with guns. Liberal, Conservative, NDP – it does not matter. We cannot fix Ontario's problems with coercion. Violence will only create more violence. It solves nothing.
Toby, if your serious about wanting government to run like a business then recognize that it must raise its funds like a business - voluntarily.
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