Finally someone who says it like it is and tells the truth. I have a lot of respect for this man. Other News Fiscal crisis sparks call to action Donald Savoie For the Telegraph-Journal 05 Jun 2013 07:36AM .It is easy to be despondent about New Brunswick’s future. I hear too many New Brunswickers talk down about our province’s economic future and who are far too negative about our economic prospects. It need not be so and I know of no economic success anywhere that grew out of a negative attitude. That said, we need to take stock of where we are to plan for a better way ahead. Our provincial government continues to be caught in a deficit and debt spiral that is getting more and more difficult to manage, the province’s population is aging – creating still more demands on our public services. Many of our rural communities are dying. I have been voicing these concerns, probably far too often in the eyes of some, over the past several years. But that is not all. There is a growing reluctance on the part of the have-provinces to continue to finance transfer payments to have-less provinces at current levels. The province’s unemployment rate remains stubbornly high. Thousands of New Brunswickers show up with their applications whenever Alberta companies come calling for workers. New Brunswickers know full well that our natural resources sector, which has underpinned job creation in many communities in the past, can be exploited with fewer workers because of advanced mechanization. The Bank of Montreal recently ranked New Brunswick at the very bottom of the ladder in GDP growth. The province’s public service is not what it once was when, pound for pound, it was the best in Canada. Politicians from all political parties, meanwhile, are content to play silly partisan political games at a time when the province is confronting some of the most daunting economic challenges in recent history. Yet the situation cries out for substantive public policy debates exploring how we can turn things around. Outside of partisan political circles, too many New Brunswickers cling to the status quo. A few years ago, there was a consensus in Canada and in our province that the country’s employment insurance program needed adjustments, if not an overhaul. No sooner did the federal government unveil reform measures – hardly an overhaul – that demonstrators hit the street and launched a media campaign essentially calling for the status quo. Those who had earlier called on Ottawa to reform the program suddenly fell silent. New Brunswickers understand, or should understand, that we need to address the province’s difficult fiscal issue with a sense of urgency. We also know that current health-care spending is not sustainable. The minister of health recently unveiled measures to deal with the issue (in my view, the measures are not sufficient) and the New Brunswick Medical Society was quick off the mark, critical of both him personally and his measures. Though one can debate the merits of his negotiation tactics, he claims that he has “all” New Brunswickers in mind when he sought to address the issue. I believe him and I respect his willingness to spend political capital. In the interest of full disclosure, I do not know the current minister of health – I’ve never met him. The New Brunswick society, at least on the face of it, is acting like a public sector union rather than a professional association. It is far too self-serving on its part to say that the minister lacks respect for its members and then focus attention on this point. The association has a choice – it can be part of the problem or part of the solution. At the moment, it is part of the problem. If it wishes to be part of the solution, it needs to acknowledge that the status quo in health-care spending is not sustainable and come forward with solutions. As I understand it, some medical specialists are making $1 million plus a year paid at yesterday’s rate but employing today’s technology. I am thinking here of ophthalmologists and radiologists. I also hear stories that some doctors will insist seeing a patient with three problems on three separate occasions so that he or she can bill medicare three times. Surely, we have the necessary information system to see if the above is true. If these stories are not true, we need to know. If true, these issues should be debated in the legislative assembly and the medical association should be the first to call for change. I read with interest the association’s 2012 submission to the minister of health. I saw precious few recommendations on how to reduce spending other than some rather uninspiring general observations about eliminating red tape. The medical association could, in the past, sidestep difficult issues knowing that public opinion was on its side. My sense is that things are changing, given the province’s difficult situation. That said, I note that the great majority of family doctors, including my own, study hard, work hard and earn their remuneration. It is in their interest to ask questions about double-billing and why we pay specialists with little regard for efficiencies from new technologies. Every association, every man and every woman for itself is not the way ahead for New Brunswick. We are in a near-crisis situation and we all need to look at the broader picture. I was struck to see retired public servants lining up to blast the government for tampering with their indexed pension plans. No matter that their taxpayers have in the past been asked to pay substantially more than 50 per cent of the cost and that our provincial government is in a near-desperate financial position. If anyone should understand this, it is retired public servants, starting with former deputy ministers. Like medical doctors, it appears that retired public servants want the status quo and if someone needs to make sacrifices to bring our fiscal house in order, then let it be somebody else. But who? Medical doctors and retired public servants with indexed pensions are hardly the ones hurting the most in society. If they are not willing to come forward and make some economic sacrifices, then the future of the New Brunswick economy will be bleak. To those who may wish to ask me – what about the universities? I note that the provincial government recently froze transfers to universities with little in the way of prior consultation. I fully support that decision and remind readers that the government of Nova Scotia actually reduced its transfers to universities by 10 per cent over a four-year period. The government of Nova Scotia is also looking at a balanced budget. This was done through determination and tough decisions – an increase in HST and the lowest increase in health-care spending among the provinces. What now for New Brunswick? How can we get our fiscal house in order? How can we promote economic development? What can we expect from our political leaders? In the interest of engaging New Brunswickers in a debate about our province’s future, I offer some suggestions on these pages tomorrow. I have no illusion – I do not have all the answers and some, if not all, of my answers may not go down well with many New Brunswickers. The point is that all New Brunswickers should engage in this critical debate that comes at a crucial time in our province’s history. Donald J. Savoie is the Canada Research Chair in Public Administration and Governance at the Université de Moncton.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Jun 2013 15:00:06 +0000