Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolven
This is why the governments needs more profit centres and not just expenses. If the governments had income beyond just taxes then they would have opportunities to be more dynamic with their services.
City profit centre opportunities:
- Home building
- Realty/Realtors - The city could move into the market of supporting the purchasing and selling of houses and use technology to eliminate the legacy industry
- Commercial/retail building (under condos)
- Part ownership of the new arena - I know the ship has sailed here but the city should have taken a percentage of the revenues in exchange for the land and $$ investment
- Other??
Provincial profit centre opportunities:
- Senior's homes (within AHS) - provide exceptional service and a lower cost than the private home but do not make it free, the residents still need to pay
- Public Insurance (Auto) - If the UCP are moving to 'no fault' anyway, we may as well copy BC and move auto insurance to the public sector
- Other??
If our governments start operating more in these ways then it will start to become expected that they will behave in these ways when new opportunities come up. For example, if the city was already a land developer then when the arena conversation started the city would simply say "cool, we'll develop the land ourselves and rent it to you for your events".
|
I’m amazed that every generation a new crop of people are born who believe that publicly-run businesses will outcompete the private sector. I actually admire the bright-eyed innocence.