Check It Out: Government doesn’t operate like a business

By Joan Janzen

Actor/comedian Bill Murray once said, “The best way to teach your kids about taxes is by eating 30% of their ice cream.” In Canada you would be eating almost half their ice cream. Columnist Katherine Whitehorn offered the following parental advice: “The easiest way for your children to learn about money is for you not to have any.”

Our children and grandchildren will be the ones who will pay for the costly decisions presently being made by government. Faytene Grasseschi interviewed Blaine Higgs, former Premier of New Brunswick, who shared his perspective on government spending.

“For several years in a row Premier Higgs was named the best fiscal manager of a province by the Fraser Institute and has been credited with walking a province off of a fiscal cliff,” Faytene reported. In 2010 Higgs started serving in different capacities up until 2023.

“After 33 years in a business career I thought I can give back now,” Higgs recalled. “In 2014 we (Conservatives) lost the election. We were in opposition and watched everything we put in place being thrown out, most notably the Accountability Act was reversed.”

He said it’s very disheartening when a new government rolls back whatever the previous government did, which is unlike the business environment where he worked for 33 years. “In a business environment you’re always building on each other’s successes; you learn from each other,” he said.

“When I left my former career, the individual who I trained for three years took over and did things better than I did. But they built on what I did and what’s beyond. However in government they throw away what others did and start over.”

Higgs realized the decisions being made are politically motivated. “A project might be doing very well, but as soon as a new government comes in it gets tossed,” he said. “How often would you do that as a career individual in any profession?”

The former Premier learned a few things about the decision-making process of governments. “I was in finance for four years and got to see how decisions were made. The philosophy to get elected was to promise everything to everybody and worry about finances later. The interesting part is - in government they don’t come in with experience. There’s no criteria to be a politician,” he added.

He also listed a popular government strategy which is to spend money as quickly as possible before departing, which really helps to explain a lot of decisions that have been made lately. An email from Canadian Minute reported the PM’s announcement of a major infrastructure project: a high-speed rail line connecting Toronto and Quebec City. It is the largest infrastructure initiative in Canada’s history.

YouTuber David Krayden reported Prime Minister Trudeau recently pledged $5 billion in frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine. By comparison, the EU with 27 countries combined, pledged $3.5 billion. Krayden also reported, according to a RCMP news release, “We only have about half a billion dollars in frozen Russian assets. Where is he going to get this money from? Is he going to send more of your tax dollars claiming they’re seized Russian assets?” Krayden asked. It’s a good question, but the answer remains unknown.

And last but not least, the Heritage Minister said the federal government would increase the CBC’s funding and make it more stable.

“The government is so tone deaf!” Franco Terrazzano from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) said emphatically on Bridge City News. “After all the criticism Canadians have brought forth on the CBC, the government’s plan is to nearly double the cost to taxpayers.” He said the Minister’s recommendation would cost taxpayers about $2.5 billion a year.

Another member of CTF, Kris Sims reported the following information online: “The Heritage Minister is saying we should remove the CBC’s funding from the budget system. Meaning the $1.4 billion they get now per year should not show up in any way in budget documents. She’s saying it should be baked into legislation and into statutes so that it is automatically there and members of parliament don’t get to debate it and they don’t get to vote on it.”

Franco added, “What they’re really doing is ducking accountability.” When Ryan Thorpe from CTF filed access to information requests about  how the tax-funded CBC spends taxpayer money, it refused to answer. Consequently the CTF is taking the CBC to court to get the information. They’re budgeting $20,000 for the court fight. It’s a sad state of affairs when a non-profit organization has to budget for $20,000 to discover how taxpayer money is being spent.

So how did the former Premier of New Brunswick earn the designation of best fiscal manager of a province and manage to walk his province off a fiscal cliff? “When I ran in 2016 I ran on ‘the province comes before politics’,” Higgs answered.

What a great concept: placing the well-being of our provinces before politics. We need more leaders who will do the same.