There seems to be a need for a “champion” for Nova Scotians. There are are all sorts of good ideas floating around but it seems the politicians just do not seem to be able to relate to what people are saying. Find me a politician at the Municipal or Provincial level that seems to know anything about how they spend our money and how they intend to get costs under control. We have “ministers” that seldom talk about their department’s balance sheet, and no wonder , as you can’t find them on any website. We have “directors” and ‘executive directors” in every province getting “bonuses” yet they never have to account to anyone for what the department does. Tourism issues a big plan every year , but never issues the report card on their plan for that year. Lets start there maybe .
Bill, we need to start to ask the Premier the right questions but we also have to start to try to reveal where is the waste.
How come there isn’t a website where we can look at the expenses of each department, the organization chart or each department, as well as these other operations like the Waterfront Development organization, the NSLC , etc. Is there some way you could help by starting to post more details from the government or by posting links to websites to help people see the waste, almost like a directory ,Department by department?. To reveal lists like you have in your text above ? We need a made in NS “tea party” . Take for example this whole “Bluenose” story. Did they ever weigh rebuilding from scratch? To hear Paris say he didn’t know that they were just going to waste all those timbers when he sells a product from the previous refit shows he doesn’t have two clues what is going on, but boy his bureaucrats are having a ball!! Have you not noticed we seldom hear or see from a Deputy Minister or an Executive Director of any department, yet there are hundreds of such positions earning well over $100,000 each. How can we expose this kind of waste?
Yes, excellent article Mr. Black. But I agree with the last poster. I think changing the culture here is about political leadership. As long as the Big Three continue to rotate as the dominant party, in my opinion, we won’t see any substantive change since they all support high taxes and big government. In fact, I would argue they are both incapable and unwilling to make the fundamental changes needed partly due to it not being in their ‘genetic code’ and partly due to their large stakes in the current status-quo. They cannot afford politically to do what needs doing. We need a real break from the past if Nova Scotia is to avoid a crisis, ie becoming a ‘failed’ province.
Bill, all of this is well said and well written butI believe that until there is a real fiscal crisis at hand, real action will not take place. There is currently no vision on where to go and how to get there. There are too many interest groups who fight tooth and nail for the status quo. The Save the View Coalition has more media than the cause you write about above yet the latter is far more serious.
Just as the O’Neil and Savoie reports are just scrapping the top layer we are easily distracted by the next “thing”.
Excellent commentary…just wanting to take it to the next level..JUST for fun…having worked in the provincial and federal civil service and in the private sector it would appear that more than ever we have more government than we can afford or want..serious costcutting measures could include the elimination of many frivolous departments ,agencies or commissions,that either duplicate federal departments or are not essential to the basic role of a provincialgovernment..just off the top.. these reductions might include…HFX DART Bridge Commission(sell or delete),Aboriginal Affairs,Acadian Affairs,African Affairs,Tourism and Culture,NS Business Inc,(all delete)..Dept of Agriculture(merge with feds),Conserve NS(merge with feds),Film NS(merge),Environment(merge),Fisheries and Aquaculture(merge),Health Promotion(merge)NS Human Rights(merge),Municipal Affairs(delete),Justice(merge),Lieutenant Governor(anachronism?..delete),Liquor Commission(sell),Ombudsman(merge)Provincial Parks(merge),Premier and Cabinet etc..(merge with other 2 Maritime Provinces),Protocol(merge),Public Safety(merge with municipalities)….and so on.Consideration could be given to privatizing all aspects of health ..ie all citizens must have health insurance..Those earning less than 50 k per year will have their premiums covered by the taxpayer..those earning over 50 k can have their premiums as an income tax deduction..a board monitors all activity…The Chronicle Herald reported Ireland’s debt to GNP as 15%..Nova Scotia is at 40% .Do we need drastic cuts?
What we are seeing is a government trying to avoid the real problem and that is the size of government . Cutting expenses is tough when the bulk are for health and education, but when we talk size, we are really talking about structure and people. The public is not seeing any effort by government to even improve communication let alone transparency. The Bureaucrats are never going to offer transparency on their own. They’ll not reorganize or cut the size of management on their own. We see far too many signs where the front line needs resources but unless some one cuts in the middle or the top, the front line suffers.We need to see the revenue and expenses for each Department and each program on a website, and start by measuring the cost per capita, the cost by number of clients . Rationalize why so many in expensive offices in downtown HRM . Decentralize to a few key “towns”. Start looking at all the contracts for call centers ,all the consultants,all of the third party so called “fee for service ” contracts. Cutting by attrition is a joke. There have been jobs sitting vacant for months, but try to find that being made public. This is not rocket science but leave it fester and you’ll see more tax increases. Imagine,their solution to tourism was to increase the sales tax 2%, add a 2% room tax and then cut the ferry link to the USA. We’ve lost lumber mills, meat processing plants, and yet we’ll buy underwater cable to help the NS Power experiment, or we’ll build a new convention center. Why not try to produce more NS product ? The debt has to made clear and taxes have to be capped until we see more transparency and a real plan . And this has to happen at the Municipal level too, as over 30% of your property taxes are going to the same Mr. Dexter !! You’ll note he worked at the ferries to PEI and NB but seems to have again forgotten the one to the USA, at the same time Marine Atlantic has two surplus ferries. Now connect those dots . Why should we try to ship product to the USA by ferry ? Naw, we wouldn’t want to do that .
As a former Public Servant I have seen many people try to save money for the government only to see it wasted elsewhere. Needless meetings at hotels and resorts to discuss planning that could be done in house. Not replacing positions to see more and more “Strategists” hired when there are numberous ones on staff with little to do or show for their exoritant salaries. You have to spend money to make money, but it always seems like to large corporations are getting the big bucks. Is not Irving empire buying the Shelburne facility. They probably have enough money to buy Nova Scotia. I have nothing against Cape Breton, but do we really need another deep water port. We have underutilized container ports in Halifax, they are developing one on the Eastern Shore and if we spend millions dredging Sydney Harbour, we will need to spend many more on the rail line as that is falling apart bit by bit. If we do not do the rail line then we will have to spend millions on twinning the highways at a faster pace than we are now. I also think it is time to have a hard look at the many universities we have in thsi small proving and how much the government pours into keepingthem afloat. It is high time for amalgamation of these. The list goes on and on and it appears we have no long term planning. I have no problem with the convention centre if it will stimulate construction in the down town and get something going beside a bunch of expensive parking lots. The construction jobs created would help with taxes and the spinoffs could be what we need to get things rolling.
There are so many issues to comment on here but let me express my overwhelming support for step 6.
I strongly support legislation that would impose a wage freeze in any year with a budgeted deficit. The freeze needs to be applicable to all civil servants as well as all indirect government employees, e.g. teachers, health care workers etc., regardless of union contracts.
It’s really very simple => a budgeted deficit = an across the board wage freeze. No exceptions.
It is my view that a wage freeze is far preferrable then massive layoffs.
I never agreed with legislation precluding a provincial/federal deficit in any particular year. That said I would like to see a requirement (legislation) that any deficit be reversed and recovered over the following three years, in other words the cumulative result over any four year period never be a deficit. A wage freeze would be a critical component to the plan to address any deficit.
When the deficit is eliminated wage increases can then be considered.
As a former Federal Government employee governments are laiden with people who work ethic may be question. Substantial cuts can be made and the services provided do not have to suffer.
The government has assets it can sell and still tax to the same return without losing a job. In fact in the long run it world benefit tourism, local wineries and selection to the people. Irving and Sobeys and maybe other companies would pay a good sum for a virtual monopoly.
Outsoures many of the operations to private groups creating small to large companies in the province.
What happened to the promise by the NDP to balance the budget? Hard to do if you don’t have a plan and you do nothing! Just another empty promise. Time to make hay.
There seems to be a need for a “champion” for Nova Scotians. There are are all sorts of good ideas floating around but it seems the politicians just do not seem to be able to relate to what people are saying. Find me a politician at the Municipal or Provincial level that seems to know anything about how they spend our money and how they intend to get costs under control. We have “ministers” that seldom talk about their department’s balance sheet, and no wonder , as you can’t find them on any website. We have “directors” and ‘executive directors” in every province getting “bonuses” yet they never have to account to anyone for what the department does. Tourism issues a big plan every year , but never issues the report card on their plan for that year. Lets start there maybe .
P S | January 31, 2011 |
Bill, we need to start to ask the Premier the right questions but we also have to start to try to reveal where is the waste.
How come there isn’t a website where we can look at the expenses of each department, the organization chart or each department, as well as these other operations like the Waterfront Development organization, the NSLC , etc. Is there some way you could help by starting to post more details from the government or by posting links to websites to help people see the waste, almost like a directory ,Department by department?. To reveal lists like you have in your text above ? We need a made in NS “tea party” . Take for example this whole “Bluenose” story. Did they ever weigh rebuilding from scratch? To hear Paris say he didn’t know that they were just going to waste all those timbers when he sells a product from the previous refit shows he doesn’t have two clues what is going on, but boy his bureaucrats are having a ball!! Have you not noticed we seldom hear or see from a Deputy Minister or an Executive Director of any department, yet there are hundreds of such positions earning well over $100,000 each. How can we expose this kind of waste?
P S | December 11, 2010 |
Yes, excellent article Mr. Black. But I agree with the last poster. I think changing the culture here is about political leadership. As long as the Big Three continue to rotate as the dominant party, in my opinion, we won’t see any substantive change since they all support high taxes and big government. In fact, I would argue they are both incapable and unwilling to make the fundamental changes needed partly due to it not being in their ‘genetic code’ and partly due to their large stakes in the current status-quo. They cannot afford politically to do what needs doing. We need a real break from the past if Nova Scotia is to avoid a crisis, ie becoming a ‘failed’ province.
Jonathan Dean
The Atlantica Party
Jonathan Dean | December 3, 2010 |
Bill, all of this is well said and well written butI believe that until there is a real fiscal crisis at hand, real action will not take place. There is currently no vision on where to go and how to get there. There are too many interest groups who fight tooth and nail for the status quo. The Save the View Coalition has more media than the cause you write about above yet the latter is far more serious.
Just as the O’Neil and Savoie reports are just scrapping the top layer we are easily distracted by the next “thing”.
Wayne Fiander | December 2, 2010 |
Excellent commentary…just wanting to take it to the next level..JUST for fun…having worked in the provincial and federal civil service and in the private sector it would appear that more than ever we have more government than we can afford or want..serious costcutting measures could include the elimination of many frivolous departments ,agencies or commissions,that either duplicate federal departments or are not essential to the basic role of a provincialgovernment..just off the top.. these reductions might include…HFX DART Bridge Commission(sell or delete),Aboriginal Affairs,Acadian Affairs,African Affairs,Tourism and Culture,NS Business Inc,(all delete)..Dept of Agriculture(merge with feds),Conserve NS(merge with feds),Film NS(merge),Environment(merge),Fisheries and Aquaculture(merge),Health Promotion(merge)NS Human Rights(merge),Municipal Affairs(delete),Justice(merge),Lieutenant Governor(anachronism?..delete),Liquor Commission(sell),Ombudsman(merge)Provincial Parks(merge),Premier and Cabinet etc..(merge with other 2 Maritime Provinces),Protocol(merge),Public Safety(merge with municipalities)….and so on.Consideration could be given to privatizing all aspects of health ..ie all citizens must have health insurance..Those earning less than 50 k per year will have their premiums covered by the taxpayer..those earning over 50 k can have their premiums as an income tax deduction..a board monitors all activity…The Chronicle Herald reported Ireland’s debt to GNP as 15%..Nova Scotia is at 40% .Do we need drastic cuts?
Allan Rodger | December 1, 2010 |
What we are seeing is a government trying to avoid the real problem and that is the size of government . Cutting expenses is tough when the bulk are for health and education, but when we talk size, we are really talking about structure and people. The public is not seeing any effort by government to even improve communication let alone transparency. The Bureaucrats are never going to offer transparency on their own. They’ll not reorganize or cut the size of management on their own. We see far too many signs where the front line needs resources but unless some one cuts in the middle or the top, the front line suffers.We need to see the revenue and expenses for each Department and each program on a website, and start by measuring the cost per capita, the cost by number of clients . Rationalize why so many in expensive offices in downtown HRM . Decentralize to a few key “towns”. Start looking at all the contracts for call centers ,all the consultants,all of the third party so called “fee for service ” contracts. Cutting by attrition is a joke. There have been jobs sitting vacant for months, but try to find that being made public. This is not rocket science but leave it fester and you’ll see more tax increases. Imagine,their solution to tourism was to increase the sales tax 2%, add a 2% room tax and then cut the ferry link to the USA. We’ve lost lumber mills, meat processing plants, and yet we’ll buy underwater cable to help the NS Power experiment, or we’ll build a new convention center. Why not try to produce more NS product ? The debt has to made clear and taxes have to be capped until we see more transparency and a real plan . And this has to happen at the Municipal level too, as over 30% of your property taxes are going to the same Mr. Dexter !! You’ll note he worked at the ferries to PEI and NB but seems to have again forgotten the one to the USA, at the same time Marine Atlantic has two surplus ferries. Now connect those dots . Why should we try to ship product to the USA by ferry ? Naw, we wouldn’t want to do that .
a irges
P S | December 1, 2010 |
As a former Public Servant I have seen many people try to save money for the government only to see it wasted elsewhere. Needless meetings at hotels and resorts to discuss planning that could be done in house. Not replacing positions to see more and more “Strategists” hired when there are numberous ones on staff with little to do or show for their exoritant salaries. You have to spend money to make money, but it always seems like to large corporations are getting the big bucks. Is not Irving empire buying the Shelburne facility. They probably have enough money to buy Nova Scotia. I have nothing against Cape Breton, but do we really need another deep water port. We have underutilized container ports in Halifax, they are developing one on the Eastern Shore and if we spend millions dredging Sydney Harbour, we will need to spend many more on the rail line as that is falling apart bit by bit. If we do not do the rail line then we will have to spend millions on twinning the highways at a faster pace than we are now. I also think it is time to have a hard look at the many universities we have in thsi small proving and how much the government pours into keepingthem afloat. It is high time for amalgamation of these. The list goes on and on and it appears we have no long term planning. I have no problem with the convention centre if it will stimulate construction in the down town and get something going beside a bunch of expensive parking lots. The construction jobs created would help with taxes and the spinoffs could be what we need to get things rolling.
DC | December 1, 2010 |
There are so many issues to comment on here but let me express my overwhelming support for step 6.
I strongly support legislation that would impose a wage freeze in any year with a budgeted deficit. The freeze needs to be applicable to all civil servants as well as all indirect government employees, e.g. teachers, health care workers etc., regardless of union contracts.
It’s really very simple => a budgeted deficit = an across the board wage freeze. No exceptions.
It is my view that a wage freeze is far preferrable then massive layoffs.
I never agreed with legislation precluding a provincial/federal deficit in any particular year. That said I would like to see a requirement (legislation) that any deficit be reversed and recovered over the following three years, in other words the cumulative result over any four year period never be a deficit. A wage freeze would be a critical component to the plan to address any deficit.
When the deficit is eliminated wage increases can then be considered.
Norm Collins
Norm Collins | December 1, 2010 |
As a former Federal Government employee governments are laiden with people who work ethic may be question. Substantial cuts can be made and the services provided do not have to suffer.
The government has assets it can sell and still tax to the same return without losing a job. In fact in the long run it world benefit tourism, local wineries and selection to the people. Irving and Sobeys and maybe other companies would pay a good sum for a virtual monopoly.
Outsoures many of the operations to private groups creating small to large companies in the province.
I am sure there are many more.
Brian Knight | December 1, 2010 |
What happened to the promise by the NDP to balance the budget? Hard to do if you don’t have a plan and you do nothing! Just another empty promise. Time to make hay.
Gerry Giffin | December 1, 2010 |