#303. September, 1996
Federal Waste -- Porkers at the
Trough
Canada struggles under a crushing deficit and Canadian taxpayers, those
lucky enough to have jobs, find themselves stripped of over half their
income through taxes at all levels. Government is a giant, inefficient
and often very self-serving beast. Journalist Peter Worthington took aim
at a few of the more outrageous examples of government waste in a recent
column, "More on the Feds' Wasteful Ways." (Toronto Sun, August
8, 1996)
Finance Minister Paul Martin's "happy face budget" (the Toronto
Sun's description) of last March stressed the "attack on the deficit
will be irrevocable and irreversible" while Prime Minister Jean Chretien
crowed that his government had "broken the back of the deficit."
Curious enthusiasm for a deficit budget of $32-billion! Concern about the
deficit is always misguided. It's the debt that's killing us, not the deficit.
Canada's international debt is approaching $1-trillion, with the federal
portion over $600-billion, and rising by $100-billion a year. No matter
how low the deficit is, the debt will keep rising. So, it verges on the
obscene to express glee that the federal deficit is "only" $32-billion;
it should be reason for tarring and feathering -- fitting reward in a more
just, if not more humane society. ... One who is performing undiluted service
to the Canadian people is Reform MP John Williams [Room 750, Confederation
Building, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6], who churns out a periodic newsletter
he calls the Waste Report. ... Some of the examples of waste if documents
... raise eyebrows and hackles. For example, federal employees whose clothes
are damaged on the job get payoffs -- small in one sense, but surprisingly
costly in others. Someone in Indian Affairs damaged a sweater and got compensated
$168 -- a pretty costly sweater. An MP's suit got torn in the House of
Commons. So, he got $350. Someone in Public Works whose shoes were water
damaged got $131. Five people who damaged their coats in the environment
ministry got an average of $440 each. ...
How about the $33-million in extra bonuses handed out last year to
government employees for being bilingual, making the total spent on bonuses
some $86-million -- despite the recommendation of our Official Languages
commissar that bilingual bonuses be scrapped. Last November, federal government
offices in Newfoundland hired a firm to shred $150,000 worth of documents,
and two days later to shred another $250,000 worth. The report wonders
what the cost was to produce this work which was subsequently shredded.
Government trips are legendary for wasted [useless?] spending. Seventeen
people (two MPs) went to Copenhagen for a conference at an average cost
of $16,852 each; 36 people (three MPs) went to the UN General Assembly
in New York at an average $10,044 each; fourteen people (one MP) attended
at GATT conference in Morocco at $5,468 each. The total Indian Affairs
budget is $5.2-billion, with thousands spent on such diverse items as funerals,
motels, taxis, and travel, etc. Wouldn't it be better to scrap Indian Affairs
and give the savings to various Indian communities as seed money so they
can run their affairs like other municipalities in Canada? In other words,
make them full citizens with equal benefits and responsibilities.
Believe it or not, the government spent $180,000 on condoms for inmates
of prisons -- where sex is explicitly forbidden! Why would human resources
give $105,000 to the Canadian Bankers' Association (Vancouver) for training
at a time when all banks showed record profits into the billions? And why
would the Canadian Bar Association get $20,000 from the Justice Department
and $287,000 from CIDA, the Canadian International Development Agency?
I've had a report, unconfirmed, that instead of buying property in Croatia
for $150,000 when Canadian UN peacekeepers were there, some $4.5-million
was spent on renting the same premises. During the Gulf War, Canada signed
a two-year lease on two apartment buildings for its headquarters staff
in the Gulf, when other allies rented on a month-to-month basis. When the
war ended, a Canadian navy petty officer was assigned to look after the
property for two years until the lease expired. If true, it begs questions.
Meanwhile, Ottawa's spending "cuts" remain unconvincing.
More Special Interest Group Handouts
From Ontario Trillium Foundation
Lest it be thought that only the feds squander taxpayers' money, a
severe smack with the cane should be dealt to Ontario's Trillium Foundation
which is supposed to disburse the proceeds of the Ontario lottery In 1995,
the Ontario Trillium Foundation pledged $21,035,913 in grants to a host
of groups. [See C-FAR 300.] Here's Ontario taxpayers' money at work:
* $100,000 to the "Ethno-Racial People With Disabilities Coalition
of Ontario ... to seek out and listen to first-hand experiences and observations
of ethno-cultural disabled people across Ontario. This project will provide
the first societal link for many of the people involved and will result
in the development of local networks of mutual support." (The Trillium
Foundation Annual Report for 1994-95, p. 19) That's a fortune for a series
of gabfests!
*$80,000 to the "Urban Alliance on Race Relations ... to strengthen
and expand the volunteer network of the Alliance in order to deal with
increased opportunities for diversity training in organizations."
(p.32) That sounds like a bucket-full of money for "volunteers".
Why not get those who truly want to be "diversity-trained" pay
for it themselves?
* $75,000 to the "Muslim Community Services, Brampton ... towards
an extensive research study on all aspects of abuse of women within the
Muslim community." (p.19) This is a wealthy community. Why must the
taxpayer pay for them to survey themselves and their own practices?
Canadians Losing Sympathy With Indians
Demands, Poll Shows
There are few more politically correct groups in Canada than the native
people. For years, outrageous land claims -- in B.C. the claims involve
more than 100% of the land! -- and ever-more militant insistance on virtual
independence and ever increasing handouts have been met, in the main, by
deferential retreat by a host of federal and provincial politicians. While
many Canadians are uneasy about the paternalistic policies of the past,
they are losing patience with the endless demands and guiltmongering often
associated with the Indians' cause. "More than 40 per cent of Canadians
believe aboriginal peoples are to blame for their problems, a survey conducted
for the federal government shows. As well, almost half of the respondents
believe aboriginal people have an equal or better standard of living than
the average citizen. The poll, by Insight Canada, also shows when it comes
to land claims, a majority of Canadians feel aboriginal peoples are being
unreasonable. It is food for thought for Indian chiefs holding their annual
meeting in Ottawa [July 8]. They are considering a more radical direction
for their national organization, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), by
making Parti-Quebecois-style sovereignty their goal. ... Ontario vice-chief
Gordon Peters of the AFN reacted angrily to the poll results, blaming Indian
Affairs Minister Ron Irwin and his department for constantly reminding
Canadians that more than $5-billion a year is spent on Indians, Metis and
Inuit peoples." (Toronto Star, July 8, 1996)
AIDS Pandemic Sweeping India and
Thailand
A major development and population factor over the next decade in India
and Thailand will be the completely fatal pandemic of AIDS. The mushrooming
of this disease in those lands is a banshee warning that Canada must institute
ruthless testing of visitors or immigrants from those lands. According
to the United Nations, South Asia and Southeast Asia account for more than
4.8-million, or 23 per cent, of the 21.8-million of the world's people
infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Slightly more than two per cent,
or about 1.1-million of Thailand's 57-million people, are infected with
HIV. Thailand has the region's highest infection rate. But it is India,
with the world's second largest population and one of the worst sex trades,
that risks the biggest catastrophe. An estimated 4-million Indians are
infected with HIV and 200,000 have full-blown AIDS, says Dr. I.S. Gilada,
who heads the Indian Health Organization in Bombay. In Gilada's "best-case
scenario", he predicts the virus will infect 20-million Indians over
the next five years. If Gilada is right, Indian society will suffer the
most horrible devastation it has ever seen. 'Even if we consider 20 million,
or 30-million, with that number of HIV-positive people, each day 6,000
to 10,000 people will die after five years,' Gilada says. Each death will
carry a lot of fallout. Each day, about 3,000 to 5,000 women will be widowed.
Each day, about 10,000 to 30,000 children will be orphaned. And no government
or business has the capacity to subsidize so many orphanages or so many
hospitals to care for these people India is already feeling the tremors
of a massive AIDS eruption, warns, Gilada, who runs an AIDS awareness campaign
in the brothels and treats AIDS patients as young as 12 years old. (Toronto
Star, August 5, 1996)
Canada's Major Aid Clients Among
the World's Most Corrupt
Transparency International has published a "Corruption Index"
assessing 54-countries. The Berlin-based agency rated New Zealand as the
least corrupt country, followed by Denmark, Sweden, Finland, with Canada
in fifth place. The 10 most corrupt countries were Nigeria, Pakistan, Kenya,
Bangladesh, China, the Cameroons, Venezuela, Russia, India, and Indonesia.
"Corruption not only corrodes democratic institutions, it adds to
the cost of living. Widespread graft in Vietnam, for instance, pads the
price of goods to the consumer by an estimated 10 to 20 per cent. The government
official who takes a few extra dollars to 'guarantee' processing a claim
is only at the bottom rung of a ladder that stretches up to the multimillion
dollar fraud schemes that corrode governments." (Toronto Star, July
13, 1996) The corruption-riddled countries have been among Canada's largest
aid recipients. In 1990-1991, Kenya ($49.34-million) was Canada's fourth
largest aid recipient in Anglophone Africa; the Cameroons, netting $43.18-million,
were the third largest in Francophone Africa. In Asia, our top-five handout
targets (Bangladesh -- $190.47-million; China -- $124.53-million; Pakistan
-- $73.10-million ; India -- $83.96-million; and Indonesia -- $59.60-million)
were among the most hopelessly corrupt. (CIDA Annual Report, 1990-91, p.S-46-S-53)
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