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The sad case of how government spends but doesn’t think: Snobelen

By JOHN SNOBELEN, Toronto Sun

Last Updated: June 6, 2010 1:45am

There are two situations that should drive fear into the heart of every taxpayer.
The first is anytime a government measures its commitment to something by the amount of money they throw at it. That, it would seem, is most of the time.
Take your pick — environment, education, health care — most governments boast about how much they have increased spending as a primary measure of how much they care.
This is, of course, the rough equivalent of bragging about spending more money for your plane ticket than your seatmate did. Just because you spent more doesn’t mean you’re going any further.
Measuring commitment by spending is easy. It’s also pure nonsense.
Sometimes you really can deliver more with less. And when you are spending other people’s money, getting more for less is a good thing.
A former colleague in education once noted there was more money spent in the name of education than was actually spent improving learning. Truer words were never spoken.
Over the past eight years Ontario has experienced a decline in student enrolment, an oversupply of teachers and a significant recession. And yet, over the same time period, teacher wages have gone up over 30%.
Which begs the obvious question; are we getting more value for the increase in cost?
It is a question that goes unasked and unanswered. In a system that uses expenditures as a primary measure of quality, more is simply better.
Blank cheque
Government bragging about spending is nauseating but for the sheer ability to send taxpayers reeling nothing can compare to those special occasions when governments decide to write a blank cheque. Your cheque.
The issuing of a blank cheque is usually precipitated by some event that has caused government to suspend thinking and start spending. Most disasters and emergencies are met with a government (read taxpayer) blank cheque, even if spending won’t logically help the situation.
Think SARS. Think H1N1.
During the SARS scare government wrote a blank cheque. Spending in the name of SARS totalled nearly $1 billion. That, my friends, is a big blank cheque.
Much of the money was spent on “special supplies for health-care workers.” Which should beg the question: How many surgical masks and gloves can you buy for a billion?
H1N1 managed to beat out SARS in gross, and I mean gross, spending by almost double. We the taxpayers managed to spend money on advertising that aired after the threat of H1N1 had clearly passed. Apparently someone thought we needed to spend money to continue to scare ourselves.
When governments suspend thinking in favour of spending, ministries and government agencies are, not surprisingly, happy to go along. Some of the best creative thinking in the public sector is spent on attaching all manner of spending to the coattails of the crisis du jour. Name the tragedy and you will find a litany of ministry initiatives with vague ties that need immediate funding.
All of this comes to mind with the recent announcement that the total cost of security for the G8/G20 summits will reach $1 billion. We have, it seems, officially quit thinking.
Over the top
I am a big fan of cops. I have benefited personally from the skill, professional acumen and courage of our security forces, particularly the OPP. More than most, I know that all that separates democracy and anarchy is a thin blue line. And that thin blue line needs to be trained and equipped to meet today’s security needs.
That said — boys, a billion is just over the top.
john.snobelen@sunmedia.ca