Our
Constitution Needs to Assure Government accountability
Reflecting on
failures in the Fisheries, Forests, Health Care, Fast-Ferries, First
Nation’s land claims, and with Human Resource Development Canada, etc. -
there appears to be a need for more government accountability. Perhaps
we need an amendment to our constitution?
BC and Canada are
not central planned autocratic ruled economies. Both are democratic
parliamentary governed, mixed economic systems. In such systems, quality
of life and social satisfaction entirely depend on two interrelated
fundamentals:
1) a
competitive private business and industrial sector that combines
resources into economic production - - distributing wealth and securing
the tax base and social satisfaction through (better paid) employment,
2) a government
sector that monitors and detects issues in the market and the pricing
mechanism – including failures in the government’s own programs - and
takes the necessary action before issues become acute, by providing the
service that the market/pricing mechanism and private sector fails to
provide.
The forest,
fisheries, fast ferries, and First Nation’s land claim issues are
examples of government failure in monitoring and intervention. Not only
did Government fail to provide the service the private sector was unable
to provide, but also caused further damage by providing services that
are not Government’s role to provide in a mixed economy.
In the BC forest
sector, the Government ignored its analyzing and monitoring obligation,
failed to intervene and allowed the issues to escalate. In
brief, the planned economic tenure system was good for a few companies
and their shareholders, but encouraged economic behavior that destroyed
the free market pricing mechanism in the forest sector.
During good times,
the system failed to encourage industry to invest in analysis of the
economy and marketplace, to adapt to the changing conditions, and to
make long-term investment in research and training - adding value, and
using fewer resources. In bad times, the system stimulated industry to
expect and seek government assistance and bailouts. Ignored and
unsolved for twenty-five years, the issues have escalated into economic,
ecological and social adversity.
This is not the
fault of business and industry. As members of the community, many owners
and executives privately share concern for flaws in the government
system. However, the first obligation of owners and industry leaders is
to the corporation and shareholders.
They would be
foolish not to utilize available corporate welfare such as forest
tenure, tax credits, industrial adjustment funds, government financing,
investment and grants - such as those to Western Star Truck in Kelowna.
That does not imply criticism toward Western Star management and owners.
The question and concern here is whether or not the BC Government’s
investment in Western Star passes a test for government intervention in
the pricing mechanism -- and whether a test was even done?
It is not
industry’s role to set standards for society and make up for
shortcomings in our government and economic system. It is also naïve to
assume that industry will fill that void. Confusing or mixing government
and private industry’s role in our economic system is like mixing apples
and pears, it is decorative, yet sooner or later both rot.
A parallel
question is why corporate welfare, under banners such as economic
development, business retention programs, Community Futures and Forest
Renewal BC, is less scrutinized by government and held less accountable
to society and tax payers, than welfare and benefit programs for the
poorest members of our society.
In the fast ferry
project, the BC Government intervened in the private sector and market
mechanism with products and services that are not the role and
competence of government to provide. The result speaks for itself.
In the First
Nation’s land claims issues, Government policies created the problems,
and then failed to solve them -- leading to deteriorating economic and
social conditions. As always, misery leads to extremism and often fuels
solutions that further erode economic production and hence social
satisfaction. Unsolved, the First Nation issues are adding to the
immense challenges the community is facing to adapt to the end of the
resource-driven and Cold War era, and to the shift to a
technology-driven rapidly shifting open economy and marketplace. The
resource and manufacturing sector is simply no longer fuelling the
economy and tax base with less-educated better-paid jobs for Canadians.
Segregation is not the solution.
In times of
economic and technological shifts, extreme positions and actions always
become more prevalent, making good government even more critical.
More than ever our future depends on good government that meets its
role in a mixed economy and is accountable. An amendment to our
constitution along the following line would provide the direction our
government seems to need in order to meet its role and provide the
accountability we all depend on.
Amendment
One:
Government from local to federal level shall analyze and identify
economic, market, social and ecological issues that face the community,
including issues in the government’s own programs, and address the
identified issues, before the issues cause adversity.
Amendment
Two:
government shall provide such products and service that the private
sector and pricing and market mechanism fails to provide.
Amendment
Three: government shall
also provide product and service that the community, in good democratic
order, has decided shall be excluded from the pricing mechanism and be
provided by government.
Amendment
Four: government is
obligated to test whether programs meet the standard for government
intervention in a mixed economy. Government must prove that it can best
provide the product and service in order to assure social satisfaction.
Such amendments
applied on the Forest industry, Forest Renewal BC and the Fast Ferry
project, and Human Resource Development Canada would compel the
Government to implement at least a rudimentary strategic analysis
planning and monitoring process.
Forest Renewal BC
and the Fast Ferry project can simply not pass a standard test for
Government intervention in a Democratically Governed Mixed Economy, nor
would numerous other patronage driven government tax transfer programs.
There is too much
focus on taxes and tax cuts, and not enough focus how our taxes are
spent and in whose pocket the tax transfers end up. Most agree that the
economic production of a competitive and sustainable industry that
generates well-paid jobs is the best way of generating and distributing
wealth and securing social satisfaction. Experience over the past fifty
years shows that the alternate method of distributing wealth via tax
transfers and individual and corporate welfare is not sustainable.
Treating symptoms
does not cure the disease. A child is poor because their family has low
income. We need to focus on family income via jobs and not via tax
transfers and government welfare programs.
Our future depends
on good, capable and accountable government that meets its role in our
economic system. The election process too often is a case of replacing
one ‘rascal’ with another ‘rascal’ who promises more cuts to budgets,
taxes, and red tape.
The problem is
that lowering taxes is a different matter than stimulating economic
production, real income and social satisfaction in the community by
renovating and revitalizing our government systems and programs. It is
no wonder that people disregard politics and do not exercise their right
to vote.
It is our analysis
that we need an amendment to our constitution that would define and
promote good government and state government’s role and accountability.
That would at least give the ‘rascals’ some direction. Perhaps enough
members of our community now have come to the same conclusion, and
joining together in good democratic order could give our political
establishment the incentive to start reorganizing our government
institutions from local to federal level. Join in.
British Columbia
November 1999
Your support is
welcome.
