Transforming Manitoba
Manitoba’s chronic reliance on transfer payments, its ever-inflating public sector and its increasing concentration of sectoral decision-making power in the hands of a few politicians have diminished the province’s prospects by over -politicizing its economy and the community in general.
The day will come when federal transfers will be reformed and capital markets will punish governments that are unwilling to live within their budgets.
With some vision and leadership, Western Canada’s only “have-not” province can respond proactively with more effective and modern public policies.
Here are some policy ideas for meeting these challenges:
Healthcare
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Replace the present global budgeting hospital funding model with one based on payment for results; separate the purchase and provision of services to introduce competitive pressures for more effective and better quality services.
Education
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Provide more choice to parents of all income levels.
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Support academic excellence with content-based curricula and standardized achievement tests.
Housing
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Work to maximize housing market supply by avoiding regulatory policies that artificially boost house prices.
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Replace rent controls with a housing voucher plan that allows low income earners broader choice in the normal rental market.
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Sell public housing to tenants.
Environment
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Substitute risk and cost benefit analysis for the precautionary principle.
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Eliminate public sector conflicts of interest by separating resource ownership from regulation.
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Remove government subsidies which keep hydro prices artificially low; cancel the West Side Power Line; do not require nitrogen removal in Winnipeg wastewater upgrades.
Core Public Sector Reform/Fiscal Constitution
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Adopt successful policy models that maximize transparency of costs, neutrality of delivery and separation of elected officials from government operations.
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Institute a purchaser-provider split where possible to maximize competitive service delivery.
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Replace balanced budget law with one that limits spending increases to population plus economic growth.
Crown Corporation Reform
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Eliminate hidden subsidies: require Crowns to pay industry cost of capital and equivalent taxes paid by normal companies.
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Remove the monopoly privileges that restrict other suppliers fom operating in markets that Crown corporations supply.
Manitoba Hydro
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Move to fair market pricing for electricity; require prices to include normal cost of capital and taxes.
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Deploy revenues to lower taxes.
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End subsidies for wind, biofuel and other so-called “green” but uneconomic energy projects.
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As prices in export markets continue to fall, stop the uneconomic construction of new dams.
Ending Federal Transfer Dependency
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Replace federal equalization subsidies with swaps of the federal GST and transfers of provincial debt that reduce interest payments.
Tax
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Swap equalization transfers for the federal GST on the condition that PST and GST are harmonized, giving 1 per cent to local government on a per capita basis.
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Use extra hydro revenues to eliminate payroll tax, capital tax, the school portion of property tax, and move to match Alberta’s 10 per cent flat income tax.
Local Government
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Shift funding model away from property taxation towards user fees, land taxes, and a portion of a harmonized GST/PST.
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Ensure senior level governments pay their fair share of property tax (Payment in Lieu grants).
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Adopt capital charge system to improve management of city assets.
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Adopt managed competition model that has in-house work force competing pro-actively with outside suppliers.
Rural Development
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Create a positive environment which promotes widely available, affordable and reliable rural high-speed Internet.
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Expand the agriculture economy by pushing the federal government to phase out supply management.
New West Partnership
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Join the New West Partnership Trade Agreement between BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Membership in Canada's largest barrier free interprovincial trade and labour market, with its commitment to eliminating regulatory differences between the provinces, will open the movement of goods, services, capital and people, and increase investment and growth.
