Recommendations for 'painless' spending cuts?

[Machjo]

In another thread, there was a suggestion that the government needs to reduce spending, but offered no suggestions as to where precicely spending ought to be cut. Certainly if specific cuts are likely to hurt the most vulnerable, political resistance to the cuts is likely to be high. So I've decided to start this thread to come up with suggestions on how to reduce government spending, whether local, provincial/territorial, or federal, in ways that might be politically palatable, or at least not too painful for the most vulnerable. I'll start with my ideas below.

[Mr.Canada]

Privatize the TTC, the Beer store and the LCBO for starters. That will free up tens of Billions of dollars, these are black holes for our tax revenue. These three things have grown into huge bureaucracies of their own and it's bloated, decadent and wasteful.

Privatize Canada Post as well. Another massive mess.

Edited December 12, 2009 by Mr.Canada

[Michael Hardner]

Privatize the TTC, the Beer store and the LCBO for starters. That will free up tens of Billions of dollars, these are black holes for our tax revenue. These three things have grown into huge bureaucracies of their own and it's bloated, decadent and wasteful.

Privatize Canada Post as well. Another massive mess.

I suppose the OP said "governments" and didn't specify federal, and municipal so okay.

First of all the Beer Store is already private, and selling the LCBO would get around $1B if memory serves - and that's a one-time payout.

So how do you save tens of billions from privatizing the TTC ?

Mr. Canada, explain thyself !

[Machjo]

On the environmental front:

Cease funding for highway construction projects and suburban expansion. Make taxes more user-pay to make people more aware of the costs of their actions. For example, cigarette taxes are useful in making smokers aware of the costs of lung cancer. We have already expanded the idea to alcohol in relation to alcoholism, liver disease, car accidents, etc. through alcohol taxes. We could extend this to a gas tax to pay for road maintainance costs, and reduce income taxes to compensate. I believe a more user-pay taxation system would make people more responsible consumers, and thus reduce government costs naturally as people try to avoid paying these user-pay taxes by acting more responsibly, resulting in less traffic and therefore less government spending needed for road maintenance, etc.

Since income taxes would decline and people would be free to choose to move closer to work, use public tranport, walk or cycle to work, etc., this would grant us enough flexibility to adjust to the changes, thus making the transition less painless, possibly even resuling in an overal drop in taxes for those who are willing to make the effort to reduce use of public infrastructure, while penalising those who choose to drive to work by hummer across town every day, thus hogging our roads, contributing to asthma in the city centres by contributing to polluttion, etc.

On the language front:

Cut federal spending on English and French language courses for public servants, and adopt the principle of regional bilingualism. This would save much money on language costs there. This would hurt language teachers, but considering that language teachers are generally more highly educated than the average Canadian, they sould be able to find work quickly enough.

Add to that that provincial ministries of education could adopt the Hungarian second-language education system to give pupils a choice of second-language to learn. this way, rather than forcing them to learn a language they can't learn, schools would be free to teach pupils a second-language they can learn. After all, learning a second-language only to fail to learn it is a complete waste of money.

Additionally, on the international front, Canada could express support for the UN adopting, revising, or creating a universal auxiliary language to be used at the UN, to replace the current system of 6 official languages and exorbitant translation and interpretation costs. Let's remember that Canada too is footing part of the bill for these translation and interpretation costs. And again, the ones likely to suffer most from this are highly trained and educated translators and interpretors who should be able to find work elsewhere with little difficulty.

On the education front:

Going to a school voucher system, perhaps based on the Swedish model, could encourage schools to use their resources more efficiently too.

[Smallc]

Privatize the TTC,

Yes, then we could change what is probably the best transit system in NA into the worst.

the Beer store and the LCBO for starters

.

And then, there'd be a revenue problem

That will free up tens of Billions of dollars, these are black holes for our tax revenue.

A transit system doesn't make money, but it does increase productivity, resulting in a bette economy. As for alcohol, well, it doesn't cost the government anything. On the other hand, it makes billions.

Privatize Canada Post as well. Another massive mess.

Canada post also makes money for the taxpayers as of now, and it is a very important and necessary service for rural Canadians.

[eyeball]

I'd privatize our overseas military combat missions and go back to using war bonds to fund wars.

If you buy it, you should own it.

[bjre]

Dismiss CAS,

Dismiss Health Canada.

Privatize hospitals and let them compete with each other.

Dismiss all unions.

[Smallc]

Dismiss Health Canada.

Privatize hospitals and let them compete with each other.

Governments don't own or control hospitals. They regulate them and fund most of their budgets. Health Canada certainly doesn't own any hospitals.

[bjre]

Governments don't own or control hospitals. They regulate them and fund most of their budgets. Health Canada certainly doesn't own any hospitals.

I guess the largest cost in tax is through Health Canada.

[bjre]

I think the largest cost for each family is house.

House take too much money that people have less to buy others.

How much it take to build a house?

Server people in several month with some material that can buy in Home Deport.

It should be in several man month.

Then why lots of family with two people full time work need 20 years or 30 years to buy a house?

It is because banks and agents takes too much money.

I think the maximum mortgage time should be restricted to 10 years to prevent bank take even more that limit people's purchase power for all other products that is critical to economy.

Edited December 12, 2009 by bjre

[punked]

Dismiss CAS,

Dismiss Health Canada.

Privatize hospitals and let them compete with each other.

Dismiss all unions.

None of this is or should be possible in Canada.

[segnosaur]

Eliminate or Privatize the CBC...

In the past, the CBC had the mandate to provide content to remote communities and to provide an outlet for "Canadian Culture". At this point, it is no longer needed for those purposes. Remote communities can be served through a multitude of private options (satellite TV/radio, the internet, shortwave, etc.) And although the CBC does provide more Canadian Content on average than other Canadian networks, it usually has very low ratings (and is it really "Canadian Culture" if nobody actually watches it?) Heck, the CBC didn't even broadcast the CFL championship (one of the most historically significant, and very popular sporting events that we have.)

[Shwa]

Actually Machjo, your suggestions are pretty good.

On the environmental front:

I think we'll see more toll roads in the GTA n the next 10 years, like the toll state highway system currently in place in NY. I don't mind paying tolls for a nice ride on a decent highway and from Buffalo to Rochester was only a couple of bucks. Toll roads, while I am sure not totally tax independent, add revenue for upkeep, reduce wear and tear on vehicles and can actually slow traffic down and critical points. So there really doesn't have to be any new taxes, just tolls. And keep the toll collecting firmly in government hands.

On the language front:

The federal government already has a regional approach to bilingualism and it is mostly a fair deal. Upper managers have to be bilingual when they will have French or English staff. Since the service model behind much of the federal public services is going virtual through call centres, this increases the need for bilingual staff.

The big problem with the federal government is that they are centralizing. Before they used to operate many offices in many regions and now all those offices are being pulled back to a virtual Ottawa or being centralized in one or two locations. Now this might save you some tax money (when was the last time the feds significantly lowered your taxes?) but a decentralized service model allows for far more federal spending in a region than the current trend. Local federal offices will tend to employ local people who will spend their income locally and provide other service and projects with a local focus.

On the education front:

Any positive suggestions for the current boards in Ontario are welcome! Currently all I see is education bureaucrats empire building at the expense of schools, curriculum and ultimately the students. I am not sure what the voucher system is, but there seems to be a trend in the GTA towards brand new large multi-milion dollar 'board offices' when schools are closing or falling into to disrepair.

[nothinarian]

Normalize salaries for federal civil servants whereby their earnings in real terms are consistent with where they reside/work. This would require establishing a cost of living factor for each area across Canada and applying it to salaries.

For example salaries might be set at a factor of 1.0 in downtown Toronto, and 0.85 in rural Nova Scotia to provide an equvalency in terms of quality of life. Implement it over 3 years to reduce the pain. If we could save 5,000 per employee, very roughly that would equate to 250,000 employees x 5,000 = 1,250,000,000 per year -not peanuts .

[punked]

I just want to point out too all the right wingers on the board. Privatizing government bisuness that makes money is a revenue cut not a spending cut and they make the problem worse.

[Jerry J. Fortin]

Only a fool would believe there is such a thing as painless cuts to government programs.

[Topaz]

First thing, take back the raise they give themselves last year!, reduced the sky high spending the ministers spend, reduced the size of the Tories in Parliament, there is too many and wages are very high. Spending cuts should start at home and that is in the PMO and down.In the private sector, everyone is starting to pay for half if not all of their healthcare, why not the Parliament?

[Jerry J. Fortin]

So you suggest a political solution of pay cuts to government employees. Do you really think that these clowns will take pay cuts and benefit cuts? Do you think they would take one for the gipper? Get a grip.

[Machjo]

Only a fool would believe there is such a thing as painless cuts to government programs.

There is such a thing as 'relatively' or 'comparatively' painless. For example, putting an end to further highway construction and suburban expansion is not going to kill anyone. Or cutting language training programmes for public servants and redesignating certain parts of the country as monolingual English or French-speaking may cost language teachers, translators, and interpretors their jobs, but seeing that those same persons are highly qualified professionals, as painful as it might be for them, they could find work again with relative ease compared to an unskilled worker, not to mention that their higher salaries while working could cushion them from the worst of the unemployment.

So on the one hand, you are right that no spending cut is totally painless, but targeted spending cuts could be relatively painless compared to alternative spending cuts.

The same could apply if Canada applies pressure on the UN to reduce the number of official languages used there. The ones to lose their jobs would be highly qualified individuals for the most part, and so they would not be unemployed for long before finding new jobs in the private sector while saving government money without having to sacrifice any core programme, thus leaving the most vulnerable members of the population relatively untouched by such spending cuts.

[bjre]

For example, putting an end to further highway construction and suburban expansion is not going to kill anyone.

Maybe build highway is for stimulate economy so that more people can have job.

In China, they are building railways to stimulate economy, GDP increase of China will be over 8% this year.

World's fastest train unveiled in China

As China's economy and population expand, so do its transport needs. Although car ownership is on the increase, the Government is investing more in the railways.

China now has the fastest train in the world. It runs from the central city of Wuhan down to the south coast, at a speed of more than 380km/h.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8406910.stm

Also from the BBC video:

About 1,000 km takes 3 hours.

13,000 km more high speed railway will be built over the next 3 years.

Edited December 13, 2009 by bjre

[Mr.Canada]

There is never a revenue problem in Canada there is a spending problem. The government spends far too much of our money and our taxes are entirely too high.

We need to privatize almost everything and lower taxes and spending drastically.

The TTC is a bloated machine which sucks Billions of dollars from our tax stream. If we sold it off we could save all of that as a privately owned TTC would be forced to be run like a business instead of a large, lazy wasteful beast like it is now. It has become a bureaucracy of it's own and this is unacceptable and wasteful.

I want to see beer and liquor sales regulated but not run by the government.

Same goes for mail delivery. Canada Post suffers from the same problems as the TTC. Large, bloated and wasteful.

As I say we, in Socialist Canada, have a spending problem not a revenue problem.

Many of the social programs I want to see scrapped as they are useless and wasteful.

Edited December 13, 2009 by Mr.Canada

[bjre]

We need to privatize almost everything and lower taxes and spending drastically.

I think the problem is caused by dominating market without competition.

Even you privatize, if it a dominated market, it will still be the problem.

Like if there is no Toyota, Honda, then GM, Chrysler will still there build high price cars.

Intel and AMD make computer better, but now they begin to negotiate, the upgrade will be slow down and price will not go down as fast as before.

Have alternative is always the best way to improve service at lower price.

Many laws make many things need license, this make others no chance to enter dominated market, that is the reason we get poor service at high price.

Edited December 13, 2009 by bjre

[Michael Hardner]

There is never a revenue problem in Canada there is a spending problem. The government spends far too much of our money and our taxes are entirely too high.

We need to privatize almost everything and lower taxes and spending drastically.

The TTC is a bloated machine which sucks Billions of dollars from our tax stream. If we sold it off we could save all of that as a privately owned TTC would be forced to be run like a business instead of a large, lazy wasteful beast like it is now. It has become a bureaucracy of it's own and this is unacceptable and wasteful.

I want to see beer and liquor sales regulated but not run by the government.

Same goes for mail delivery. Canada Post suffers from the same problems as the TTC. Large, bloated and wasteful.

As I say we, in Socialist Canada, have a spending problem not a revenue problem.

Many of the social programs I want to see scrapped as they are useless and wasteful.

Mr. Canada - you didn`t respond to my points from the previous page. Also, you are aware that Canada Post and the TTC are different types of entities right ? The TTC is run by the city of Toronto with funding from all levels of government, while Canada Post is a crown corp.

[punked]

Mr. Canada - you didn`t respond to my points from the previous page. Also, you are aware that Canada Post and the TTC are different types of entities right ? The TTC is run by the city of Toronto with funding from all levels of government, while Canada Post is a crown corp.

Nope it is clear to him privatize everything, things that make money, things that don't, and no taxes, and no government, privatize the military and give all the money to the Rich. It makes sense to Mr. Canada.

[Michael Hardner]

Nope it is clear to him privatize everything, things that make money, things that don't, and no taxes, and no government, privatize the military and give all the money to the Rich. It makes sense to Mr. Canada.

I`ll be interested to find out whether those tens of billions that he mentioned are real or not. Likely not.