Recently, Premier Greg Selinger gave his annual “State of the Province” speech to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.
It was full of the usual boasts about spending money on various projects, but it also lacked innovative ideas and empathy with everyday taxpayers.
So here’s an alternative speech the Premier could have delivered (and the following are real numbers.)
****
“Ladies and gentlemen, I want to begin today by noting that our government has heard you loud and clear. We understand that families across Manitoba are feeling the pinch from the PST increase, big school tax increases as well as municipal property tax hikes and large hydro rate increases.
We’re not too proud to acknowledge that we made a mistake with the PST increase. That’s why the PST will be going back down to 7 per cent as of April 1, 2014.
Some will say it can’t be done, but the amount of money brought in by the PST increase only represents a couple percent of total government spending. We can easily be two or three per cent more efficient.
Tomorrow I’m striking an all-party committee to find savings and advise on how government spending can be more sustainable. Yes, I’m going to try and work with both opposition parties.
My predecessor, Gary Doer, only had 16 people in his cabinet. Currently there are 19. We all know that every provincial politician that is put in cabinet receives a pay increase, a government vehicle, more staff and other benefits. That’s why I’m going to cut my cabinet back down to 16 members.
I’m also going to enforce the 40 per cent pay cut that cabinet Ministers are supposed to take when we run deficits. As many know, we changed the rules to make it only a 20 per cent pay cut, but that’s not right.
Upon further review, we’ve noticed that there is a lot of room in the bureaucracy to trim savings. In fact, a Frontier Centre for Public Policy study notes that if Manitoba could get the size of its municipal and provincial bureaucracy down to the national average, we could save over $1 billion per year.
While I have already announced a reduction of 600 bureaucrat positions, it looks like we actually increased the bureaucracy by 1,200 positions leading up to that announcement. Thus, we need to do better.
Thankfully, 40 per cent of civil servants will be ready to retire during the next 10 years. Thus, we should be able to downsize without hurting existing staff.
Our government will also be looking at more partnerships with the private sector. Saskatchewan is going to save $93 million by having hospitals partner with a business to clean hospital linens. We’re going to look at more partnerships like that too.
We’re also going to cut back on government advertising and, just like Ontario, we’re going to ask our provincial auditor to approve all major government ad campaigns to make sure there is no partisan rhetoric in them.
Our roads and highways need a lot of work. That is why proposals for discretionary projects like new stadiums or convention centres will be turned down for five years. Instead, we’re going to put the savings towards road and highway repair.
Clearly these ideas represent a big shift for our government, but I have heard you loud and clear. The next State of the Province speech will be celebrated with lower taxes, better roads and services and a more transparent and accountable government.
Thank you.”
Colin Craig is prairie director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
