It’s probably the Libertarian in me, but I’m afraid there’s
a hard line about a spending deficit. The line for me is that at
no time, ever, should a gov’t spend more than it takes in.
Prime Minister Harper cut taxes and for that I thank
him. Having said that, no one should confuse the GST tax-cut
as a means to reduce the burden on tax-payers. In reality it
was to reduce gov’t revenues to handicap the Liberals. Good
strategy, easy sell, obvious advantages. The down-side of
the cuts though is that there is less revenue. Less revenue
without a corresponding change in spending means that a
deficit is a real possibility.
It’s time to stop the spending. The last budget increased
spending like there was no tomorrow. There were no cuts,
regardless of the opinion of artists, that money they whined
about was “shifted”, not saved.
It’s time to be conservative again.
So, aside from the obvious: HRC, CBC, Wheat Board,
military, what other areas can the Conservative gov’t cut to
get out of the red?
Cheers,
lance
Harper can start further cutting of the special tax free status of various groups and individuals currently registered as “Charities” for which we pay.
Many of these NGOs are nothing more than political and religious lobby groups.
The CJC, BB and FOSW along with the CIC as well as the Supreme Islamic Council come to mind.
Cut Quebec
Get rid of government pensions. Pay the bums a reasonable salary and they can fund their own RRSP’s, just like we do, instead of us first paying them, then paying their pensions before we pay for our own.
Sorry Lance. You blew it big time when you put military on your list.
“It’s time to be conservative again.”
Paging Mr.Harper…
I’m with you, mhb. Those who wish religious institutions to lose their tax exempt status have no idea how much they good they do in their communities—and much more humanely and efficiently than any government agency could.
E.g., My husband and I have been involved in a program which provides a meal a week for about 150 people who, in general, live on the street or in very straightened circumstances. Many of us provide a lot of food—we get a receipt for this donation—while, for the considerable food preparation and distribution time, there is, of course, no receipt. At these dinners, where the clients are treated with much courtesy and care, there is a real community feeling. At Thanksgiving, over 300 people were served a turkey dinner: as most of the cost—the human labour, as well as the overhead of the location—was volunteered, this enterprise was both more personal and much more efficient than anything a government agency could provide.
You anti-religious types only seem to see the glass as half full. Beware what you wish for: if religious institutions lose their tax exempt status, you’ll see a myriad of humane and important services disappear.
Ladies and gentlemen, how about some -practical- suggestions?
There is no department of anything, anywhere, that can’t soak up a 5% budget cut. They lay off a body, they hold back on new replacements for existing functional equipment, maybe re-think some expansion plans.
A 5% reduction in the total operating budget of the Canadian government as a whole would more than keep us out of deficit, particularly if applied to include TRANSFER PAYMENTS. Dalton McSquinty should get a 10% cut, just to remind the idiots at Queen’s Park whose money they are spending.
One should not look upon this crisis as a pure disaster. What we as Conservatives are presented with here is a perfect excuse to review and trim the entire system of regulation and oversight which is strangling this country.
Major example, workplace health and safety regulations. Many regulations are good and necessary, many are idiotic and counterproductive. Cleaning meat slicers properly is good, handicapped accessible washrooms in firehalls is perhaps not so good.
A review of regs with the focus being on reducing the cost of compliance AND the cost of enforcement could do two things. It could massively reduce the invasion of private property and private enterprise by government apparatchiks, and it could improve workplace safety by only regulating things which can be enforced.
Another fruitful area for cuts, environmental protection. Focus on enforcement of regs on things which are actually harmful, maybe not so much time spent harassing farmers about cutting the weeds in their ditches.
In the trimming of these agencies the most important part is who gets fired. This is the political part where you jettison the socialist empire builders and put in conservative empire shrinkers. Give them a monetary incentive bonus for cost reduction.
As for the military, I’d say they need a lot more soldiers and a lot fewer officers and QM types. Fire half the officers over the rank of Captain, streamline support so it doesn’t take 20 QM guys 10 of whom are majors, to keep one guy in the field. Spend the money on stuff that goes bang for a change, and more guys to use it on the enemy.
If you make the cost of things an issue, its amazing how much cheaper things can become.
“The line for me is that at no time, ever, should a gov’t spend more than it takes in. ”
Today I give you eighteen dollars. Tomorrow I give you seventeen dollars. The next day, I take two dollars. How many dollars do you have?
Running a one or two dollar billion deficit is suboptimal but palatable when one has paid down thirty five billion in debt in the preceding two years. What is more libertarian than freeing the people from the surly bonds of compound interest?
You say the GST cut – five percent of government revenues and twelve billion dollars – isn’t a means to reduce taxpayer burden. Respectfully, were you high when you wrote that? Tax cuts don’t come much bigger than that in real life.
Spending has skyrocketed because “libertarians” (does anyone in Canada describe themselves as “authoritarian”?) are averse to taking on special interest groups. Harper has to increase spending rapidly because we are gaining population rapidly – over a million arrivals since Harper came to power, 3% of our population, at a cost of tens of billions to the taxpayer (Source: Fraser Institute). I don’t think it’s very libertarian to give that a wink and a nod; do you?
Libertarian needs to mean more than some guy who wants to download free Hollywood movies while tacitly approving every left wing radical cause that has appeared since 1964.
We live in a country where the government that just increased spending on arts was repeatedly attacked for *cutting* spending to arts, and where the government that just increased transfer payments to the have-not provinces was attacked for *cutting* transfer payments, and where “are Conservatives barbarians?” is considered a reasonable question for a nationally televised debate. Black isn’t white in Canada, it’s fish.
To answer your question, I’d gut the hell out of the public service and suspend gender and race quota hiring which is directly responsible for the waste of billions of dollars on such failures as the gun registry. Two billion bucks to develop a web app a script kiddie could write in a week.
If I could. Problem is, Canada is signatory to all kinds of international treaties on these matters, not to mention our own courts and the special interest groups themselves.
Considering the “new normal”, Harper has been outstanding from a fiscal perspective. Did you see the Conservatives’ election “platform”? Sixty million – that’s “million”, with an “m” – in new spending on a few token nanopolicies. THAT is libertarian, baby, and possibly the most libertarian federal election platform in Canadian history. I think Harper is more minimalist than incrementalist, and under the circumstances a lack of policy – “policy” being a press release promising to spend a minimum of a billion taxpayer dollars, in the Canadian vernacular – is the best we can hope for.
loki
“””””” can’t wait for socialized medicine to end in this country.”””””
amen!!!!!!
“Time to bury the gun registry”
“What started as a program said to cost $119 million, is now estimated to cost about $20 billion,”
http://tinyurl.com/58ztpo (winsun)
20 Billion$ would buy X MRIs?
I’d cut spending money in Ontario, stop trying to keep jobs in Ontario that are not going to last in Ontario. ie. the auto sector.
But what I really can not understand is why, D. McQuinty can forecast for months that Ontario is going to be a have-not province. Then two days after they talk about a 500 million deficit they have a solution to the problem.
Is it just me or should the solution not have happened before the deficit?
I think he will announce massive spending cuts over the next while…
It’s probably been the plan all along.
After all, it’s pretty hard to announce spending cuts when you’re running 10+ billion dollar surpluses.
So, he had to cut taxes first.
“There is no department of anything, anywhere, that can’t soak up a 5% budget cut. They lay off a body, they hold back on new replacements for existing functional equipment, maybe re-think some expansion plans.”
This has already been happening for the last four years, federally (longer in some departments, decades in others). 5-10% per annum is the norm, not the exception. As for equipment, most departments are so far behind the technological 8-ball, its downright primordial. Existing professional and semi-professional staff are making 10-25% less than their counterparts in private sector or provincial services, and are actually having difficulty making ends meet in large metropolitan areas.
“A review of regs with the focus being on reducing the cost of compliance AND the cost of enforcement could do two things. It could massively reduce the invasion of private property and private enterprise by government apparatchiks, and it could improve workplace safety by only regulating things which can be enforced.”
This statement is mostly nonsense. In fact, the cost of compliance and enforcement is skyrocketing due to the amount, even as the government has massively reduced compliance and enforcement budgets.
The statement is based on the truly dumb assumption that in the absence of compliance and enforcement, people would actually act in the best interests of themselves and their neighbours. Incredibly naive – doesn’t happen, won’t happen. Canadians are as predatory as any middle eastern terrorists. In the absence of government regulatory and compliance regimes over important issues, Canada would make China look like the poster child for public safety.
The 1850’s business model is only great when you own the business. People don’t seem to get that in any fully freewheeling economy they’re more likely to be the serf than the overlord, or shot dead trying to steal supper.
$20 billion?
What is this? A game of bullshit poker.
Much as I despise the gun registry, I can’t believe the 20 billion figure.
Am I wrong?
Sorry, need to correct this line – left a bit out:
“… In fact, the cost of compliance and enforcement is skyrocketing due to the amount on non-compliance and lack of enforcement, as the government has massively reduced compliance and enforcement budgets.”
OLD WHITEY
“””” for all you athiests, without the ten commandents we have no morality “””””
didn’t the comic book, the BIBLE preach something about judging, isn’t the good lord the only one who should do so????
you kno the one about glASS houses and stone throwing!!!!
Legacy Moralist at 11:19
“Today I give you eighteen dollars. Tomorrow I give you seventeen dollars. The next day, I take two dollars.”
This is what we are talking about here, some conservatives are already confused by being in Ottawa. You don’t give me any money, neither the government, unless you are pushing far left ideas. Anyway, as long as Harper won’t have guts to address HRC,CBC, Medicare, please don’t spin definitions of “libertarian’.
We give 50 million a year to China STILL for foreign aid.
We could stop and give me 1/2 that.
I have a feeling cutting that wouldn’t put us into recession either.
Send the Vatican and other churches the 7 billion dollar bill for the Residential School claims as held in Blackwater v. Plint, [2005]3 S.C.R. 3, 2005 SCC (“Second, the power of the government to enter into agreements with religious organizations for the care and education of Indian children suggests that the duty is eminently delegable and was contracted out of by the government. Arguments based on general obligations outside the strict language of the statute and the residential school setting, such as Parliament’s control over definition and registration of Indians and jurisdiction over reserves, are not persuasive.”). The previous Liberal government by agreed to have the not responsible taxpayers pay the damages based on attendance.
Skip, you know as well as I do that companies and individuals can’t fully comply with all regulations, there are too many. Not that they can’t comply and stay in business, they can’t do it -at all-.
I’m not saying there should be no regulation. I’m saying what is important should be regulated and what is not shouldn’t be.
Listeria in meat packing plants is escaping notice because the company is paying attention to its affirmative action hiring plan and trans gendered sensitivity training courses. They are spending money on handicapped accessible everything in a building where there are not and never will be any people in wheel chairs, instead of focusing on keeping the meat safe. Likewise inspectors are checking for bathroom fixture compliance and skipping the meat slicer room. Its idiotic.
You don’t think Canada could shave a couple hundred billion off costs by applying actual common sense to regulations and eliminating 40 years of political correctness? You think a government that consumes on the order of HALF Canada’s gross domestic product can’t go on a diet? You don’t think the City of Toronto alone could come up with a billion bucks in budget cuts if they had to?
By the way. Do you think “greed” (or the profit motive as it is also known) was well rewarded in this Maple Leaf Foods fiasco? Check Maple Leaf’s stock price for the right answer.
Phantom, I agree with you about cutting assinine regulations. Here in BC the Worthless Commie Bastards (WCB) not being satisfied in making us pay for gas before pumping have recently mandated that hospitals and doctors offices can only use “safety” syringe needles and scalpels. These are very cumbersome devices which are likely to result in more injuries as they require people to change how they have been working for decades. I’ve never jabbed myself with a needle after giving an injection and figure I’ve probably given about 25000 injections in the last 15 years. I’ve also never shot myself in 40+ years of shooting (or even come close to doing so) and it just takes the right mindset when one is working around things which can hurt you. The stupid are going to hurt themselves regardless of how many regulations are in place.
Anything my office produces is considered “medical waste” and requires “special handling” (ie it costs a lot more to get rid of). It’s an offence to dispose of biologic material in regular garbage but HIV+ women aren’t being asked to dispose of their used tampons in special medical waste containers. Throwing expired drugs into office garbage is an offence and it has never made sense to me why I can’t toss a sealed bottle of expired antibiotic into the trash when I can give the same pills to a patient who will ingest them and pee out the antibiotic into the sewer system.
I’m sure everyone who reads SDA can come up with their own examples of regulations which are non-sensical and a prime target for government cuts should be the people who write these regulations. Putting this group on individuals on welfare is likely far cheaper than letting them continue to create an endless number of more and more restrictive regulations.
I always laugh when I hear farmers talk about Food Freedom Day coming in at February 4th every year – as if it’s a bad thing for the country or evidence that we “underpay” our farmers. Its like these people would prefer that we go back to the egyptian times and work until December 15th every year to pay for food.
Fact: We subsidize farmers to the tune of $5 billion every single year. Thats $5 billion for a population of approximately 160,000…which works out to $31,250 per farm or more per capita than natives. Of course, the Food Freedom Day calculation never includes what the evil customers pay to subsidize the growers.
Fact: The average farmer’s net equity is over $940,000. Contrary to popular belief, this equity figure is being driven down by large corporations who are debt financing and driven up by the smaller farms with one to two thousand acres. So we’re paying billions to subsidize millionaires.
Sources: Public Accounts, 2006 Farm Financial Survey
So-called food freedom day is a ludicrous bit of propaganda that uses aggregate figures to come up with some fictitious date that has absolutely no reflection in reality. It is a demonstration of how figures can lie and liars can figure. It’s sole purpose is for free-loaders to justify their faces being perpetually in the public trough.
The truth is, for the vast majority of income earners, there is no cheap food policy, nor is food cheap.
Of course, food freedom day is a riff on the Fraser Institute’s equally inane Tax Freedom Day which uses the same nonsensical methodology. You all remember the Fraser Institute, famously on the public tit as a charitable write-off. Seems to be no end to Conservative hypocrisy. Now there’s a good place to start cutting.
get rid of the gun registry, official bilingualism, and multi-cult, in addition to Lance’s suggestions. Oh, and the subsidy for political parties – totally unnecessary.
loki how bout thou shalt not steal. this applies all to every person and gov dept in this country.
gym how bout thou shalt not steal. this applies all to every person and gov dept in this country.
Actually a responsible government should hold the line on spending. Entering into a recession is not the time to cut overall government spending, otherwise the cuts are a knee jerk reaction and a trigger for economic panic/depression. The deficit should be balanced over a period of years to help counteract normal variations in the boom/ bust cycle. However, now is always a good time to reallocate spending from wasteful to productive areas.
I like the above suggestion that regulations be simplified. It is the best suggestion for getting the best bang for OUR buck. For too long any government body could add just about any regulation without considering the impact. I would like to see any bureaucrat proposing a regulation having to present and defend it before a committee of affected citizens. Some would be a reality check and some would gain acceptance.
If we want to eliminate all farm subsidies in the interest of a true “free-market economy” then there exists the undeniable extension of this principle to the beloved Canadian Wheat Board. I am a farmer and I believe in a true “free-market economy” but if I am expected to pay the salaries of 500 employees who I do not believe provide me with any benefit then I guess a little bit of every one else’s money in my pocket is okay too. Yeah, the CWB may be a government operation but it’s not funded by all members taxed by the government. That money comes straight from my paychecks. Almost feels like paying union dues when I fervently disagree with the entire notion of unions.