“Fancy That”
The Old Man in The Hat
Recently the Finance Minister of New Brunswick raised the idea of instituting Heath Care Premiums as a revenue source for the province. Mr. Higgs has previously commented that New Brunswickers seem to have little appetite for giving up what they have, so getting the deficit under control by cutting existing government services is not going to get the job done.
This trial balloon, on its face, may be worth considering. However, before we go down that trail, I think we need to discuss some things.
First, what is the function of our elected members? Is it to get re-elected in the next election cycle, or is it to make choices, on our behalf, that are in our collective best interests- short and long term?
For example, closing Health Centers on statutory holidays probably saves money. If it is such a good idea to reduce services in the rural areas, how much more sense is it to do the same in the high utilization urban centers. Maybe their walk-in ER services should be closed on holidays too. The ambulances would respond to emergencies, as before, but ambulatory patients, City and Country, would be without service for a 3 day weekend. Fair and balanced. Should save money. Will it get you re-elected, probably not. Fancy that!
Everybody loves their local school. Without argument. However, in many areas of the province, student numbers are substantially down and adjustments need to be made. Will decisions to close underutilized schools get the local MLA re-elected? No. Do we as a society need to do it? I think, probably, yes. We simply do not have the money. Or so we are told. Yet, although school districts have decreased in number to “save” money, we still have in Anglophone District West, three “Education Centers”, Oromoncto, Fredericton and Woodstock. (As to why two centers would be in such geographic proximity is a mystery to me, but I’m sure it makes sense to someone’s re-election.) These centers are full of people who provide services to the various schools throughout the district. Having said this, it is beyond me that offices would be necessary at all as these individuals should be in the schools they service. One would think that with Skype, smart phones, and the internet, with all this connectivity not seen in the history of mankind, that physical office space would be redundant and a total waste of monetary expenditure. That is, if we have no money, and we don’t want to get re-elected. Fancy that!
Second, it would be nice to know what the government spends and where. Simply. For example, much has been made about openness in reporting Ministerial expenses. Guess what? Are these conveniently listed on a single government webpage? Not that I can find. Yes, it is there. You have to go to each department. Separately. One at a time. How transparent!
Business corporations have information systems that enable them to produce financial statements or updates by querying their databases to produce intelligent reports that senior managers can act on. Wouldn’t it be nice to see that- maybe even four times a year- online and in the paper. An informed electorate. Fancy that!
Third, heath care, yet again. One of the biggest jokes are the Regional Hospital Corporations. Try to find out where the money is going there. All opaque. Not government, they say. Separate they say. Source of funding- you and me- i.e. the same source of funds as the Government of New Brunswick. Fancy that. It sure seems like the government must have something to do with the Health Corporations. Mr.Hugh Flemming, our Minister of Health, just fired and hired new CEO’s recently. Guess the health corporations were surprised. Guess the ELECTED board members were surprised. We’re spending money on these elected boards for what reason- democracy you say- fancy that! Sounds rather like a waste of money to me-but what do I understand?
While we are talking health care, lets mention the Extra-mural hospital. Wonderful service. Much appreciated, but why do employees drive from home to work to pick up a vehicle to do their shift and then promptly drive back to their home area to see clients, and so must do the reverse procedure at the end of the day. If the employee lives more that 25km from the office, they drive 100km a day/500k a week/ 25000km a year, just travelling to and from. This is not productive. This is expensive. But, what do I know?
I think I know this. The HST was reduced from 15% to 13%. Corporate income taxes were reduced. Personal income taxes were reduced. We all like paying less but the effect of all these reductions was to reduce government income. As any adult knows, less income should have necessitated a reduction in spending. This apparently did not happen. Fancy that!
If you really want to get re-elected, start by making decisions that will most benefit us, not you and your plans for re-election. Maybe then we’ll talk about user fees. Fancy that!
