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| 2003-12-17 A real spending freeze or a one-week cold snap? You decide | | | Ottawa Sun
Published: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 Is freeze a cold snap, or spending ice age? Stop the presses, I think, this region’s largest employer has announced a spending and hiring freeze. In a release out from Treasury Board (TBS) yesterday, TBS President Reg Alcock and Finance Minister Ralph Goodale noted “an extensive review of government spending and immediate measures to control costs will ensure the government has the flexibility to meet the priorities of Canadians.” Chameleon-like Goodale added, “we have taken immediate steps to find savings in the current fiscal year. We will take every step possible to ensure that we are able to provide the $2 billion health transfer to the provinces and territories without going into deficit.” It is chameleon-like because Mr. Martin – in everything he and his team does – will try to look like a prudent banker and compassionate social worker all rolled into one nice Liberal red package. From the political side, this is also Paul Martin’s settling of accounts with his old nemesis, Jean Chretien. Reading between the lines further in the TBS release, there is talk of “restoring the trust of Canadians” and “fostering a new management culture” in the public service. Translation: The joke of a budget presented last February which ratcheted up spending beyond Mars combined with the scandals that have plagued the feds for the past 18 months from “cash for contracts sponsorship scams” to “get a deal on executive jets by year’s end” to the gun registry, slated to hit $2 billion now by 2010 have taken their toll. Ask any pollster to drill below the simplistic top-of-line party affiliations and leader choice questions and they’ll tell you that taxpayer trust in the current federal regime is at an all-time low. We should also remember that for the past decade, our new Prime Minster was at the helm for eight an EI rip-off to the tune of $45 billion and counting, bracket-creep tax gouging (until 2000), wasteful corporate welfare spending Chretien administration as the Finance Minister. In other words, yesterday’s freeze was welcome, but long overdue. While news of a detailed review of all government expenditures in the coming months is also welcome, the more fundamental questions deal with the legacy impact (or not) of yesterday’s announcement. Will the process of reallocation of expenditures from low- to high-priority areas in Ottawa become a permanent exercise above and beyond routine in-year departmental re-profiling efforts? And will Mr. Martin engage in an exhaustive debate as to what the role of the federal government should be in the 21st century. In successive economic statements for half a decade Mr. Martin loved to rhetorically pose this question. It is time for the rhetoric around this question to morph into real debate and ultimate action. Program spending has increased by double the rate of inflation and population growth over the past seven years. Such a spending track – especially given provincial demands for more health care transfers – was and is unsustainable. Cast in this light, yesterday’s announcement is seen less as an act of leadership and more as a simple accounting reality and response, the future did not add up. As well, Mr. Martin, by one estimate, has pledged $30 billion in new spending commitments – from aboriginals to cities to the environment – over the past year in the run-up to his coronation as Liberal leader and no one is quite where all this money is going to come from. Finally, the cynic in me has to ask how long will this spending and hiring freeze last? How much do you want to bet that after the polls are closed and the ballots are counted next May or June, yesterday’s TBS “freeze everything” news release will hit the paper shredder faster than Dalton McGuinty can break election promises. | | |
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