As time goes by more and more of our lives are affected by governments. We have to have a licence for many activities and we must have permits for many of the things we want to do.
We are told when and how to dispose of our household waste and then taxed for that service. There are taxes on our incomes, taxes on everything we purchase, and even more taxes on gasoline we need to get to work in order to pay all these taxes.
This has grown to the point where the average Canadian pays over 50 per cent of earned income on some form of taxation while wealthy Canadians pay an even greater percentage.
I assume many people would argue that it is the price we pay for our standard of living in Canada, but I have some serious objections to this attitude.
There are copious examples of waste and mismanagement in government that would not be allowed or could not happen in private industry because the company would be in bankruptcy. When government projects fail or go dramatically over budget, no one is responsible, no one is accountable for the blunder, the taxpayer pays for all the mistakes and they move on to the next escapade. Examples:
A. The federal government purchased a payroll system that doesn’t work and has caused such turmoil that instead of reducing payroll staff it has required more people to correct the errors. So far Canadian taxpayers have paid over $600 million for this system and continues to cost more as it fails.
B. A few years ago the B.C. Ministry of Education purchased a computer system to track all of the school children in B.C. at a cost of over $60 million. It didn’t work. Get a new one.
C. Remember the fast ferries? They were supposed to cost under $100 million but wound up costing over $300 million.
D. In 2016 Island Health purchased a computer system for $174 million but the doctors refuse to use it because it is so bad and it’s estimated that corrections may cost another $50 million or more.
Currently there are movements occurring for a province-wide vote regarding the change of our electoral system from first past the post to proportional representation with the idea this will make things more democratic. My opinion is that this is another government waste of time and money because we’re kicking the wrong end of the donkey.
How about politicians submitting their resume to the public at election time to prove their qualifications?
How about politicians being responsible for these multi-million-dollar errors?
How about someone losing their job because of their abysmal performance?
How about making a budget, staying within the budget and paying off the debt already accumulated by previous irresponsible politicians?
How about better government based on common sense?
Greg Hoover is a project manager in industrial and commercial construction who has lived with Christina in Tsawwassen for 25 years.
