One issue I have with all the "reign in the spending" austerity talk is that no one (especially at the government levels) will define government services or responsibilities.
It is becoming clear the government (all levels; Federal, Provincial, Regional, Municipal) can no longer be all things to all people all the time. The populace can't have everything and expect RBC or IBM or Coke or Exxon to foot the whole bill to eternity.
The city government needs to make sure the roads are safe and the garbage is picked up and that we have a good police/paramedic/firefighter force, so why are they in the theater business to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars?
My Regional Government also runs a police force as well as transit. Why they want to be in the Ski hill business is beyond me.
Why is any government in the broadcast business? I understand the sweeping mandate of the CBC, but they could clearly do it better for less. However, in Ontario we have Television Ontario (TVO). It has a mandate to offer educational programming to youth and pre-schoolers. It is funded out of the Ministry of Education! Canadian Broadcasting rules are no better than Bill 101 in QC.
Politicians need to start with themselves, to show that they bleed too, and then cut the low hanging fruit (do you want to keep a fringe local theater group going, or do you want to keep a shelter open?).
$100,000 here, a million there, eventually it will add up to real money.
(rant over)
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