Donald Savoie a Thatcherite?
Axe salaries at Business New Brunswick says Savoie
I like Donald Savoie just as much as the next Liberal who drinks the local red kool aid as he's a stand up guy. And even though I don't always agree with his views on economic development, there has been some well intentioned stuff in his public policy writings over the years (all of which I have read btw).However, after reading the Telegraph Journal article today titled Shake up tradition, I am left wondering three things: 1.) Has the award winning Moncton academic, who gave birth to ACOA and made regional development policies sexy in New Brunswick, lost his mind? 2.) Is he getting back at Premier Graham for tinkering with early french immersion? (check out the direct hits to the self-sufficiency policy in his commentary) or 3.) Is he truly moving to the right (towards classical liberalism) in his thinking on economic development and away from his regionally popular and left leaning statist views?
Yours truly is definitely a little skeptical, but hopes it's the latter.
Update
Considering the fact that the monitoring of water quality is being well managed in my town by a private company in Moncton (it used to be government), it sure makes this statement in today's Telegraph Journal by Tom Mann appear to be a bit of a left-wing stretch:
For starters, in this day and age, it's the reverse. Finding private sector solutions for health care, roads and monitoring water quality while reducing the size of the public sector is a win-win for both consumers and taxpayers. Plus, New Brunswick has always had one of the largest bureaucracies of any Canadian province. Not sure what small government Mann is referring to in the 90s? It wasn't McKenna's.Slashing staff in the civil service is a "20-year-old solution that didn't work," Mann said, noting we already tried to "pull a Thatcher" here in the early 1990s, when several thousand jobs in the sector were cut.
Doing so led to adverse effects on quality of life in the province, he noted, pointing to "fewer people dedicated to inspection of restaurants, fewer people testing the water we drink, fewer people investigating the safety quality of our highways."
10 Comments:
Even bright guys like Savoie realize that Trudeau's regional development schemes, and the people who backed them, are a dying breed in Canada.
Sort of like dinosaurs.
NBT,
Savoie has been a Thatherite since the beginning. He was big with the Third Way movement which has since been labelled neo liberalism or neo conservatism. Same thing.
He was instrumental in putting together PS2000 (Public Service 2000) which advocated a more market based public service. A management system referred to as New Public Management (NPM), which focuses on P3s, competition for public dollars, etc...
He has been described as a Liberal, but I would say he is more a member of the Opportunist Party than the Liberal Party.
That shouldn't detract from the fact that he is a well respected academic on the economics of the public service and public service values.
Savoie makes a valid point about the private sector and the pummeling it has taken over the years in NB due to inept government policy. As you know, I'm a Nova Scotian who believes NSBI was one of the better policies coming out of the John Hamm administration.
Unfortunately, we've rested on our laurels after the Research in Motion coup. Much like your province, our government has not streamlined the bureaucracy to make it more efficient, they've just increased the size as well as spending while keeping taxes high.
Wasn't he appointed by Paul Martin as a research guy for the Gomery commission?
anon: I don't know? I keep hearing we need this much $$$ from the federal government for this...and government units moved or relocated for that. Not exactly what I call coming to a realization that this stuff doesn't help the economy, just more of the same.
monctonite: good points. Sometimes it hard to decipher whether it is the public that doesn't want these types of policies or the politicians and experts selling these very policies aren't honest in their overall intentions? Sometimes I think it's more of the latter.
bill: NSBI is an example of a fair public policy initiative, only because it is a private bunch overseeing the same type of statist type regional development (forgivable loans, payroll rebates, corporate welfare, etc.). If things are to truly change, we need a greater involvement from the private sector while streamlining the public sector.
anon; yes, i do believe he was involved in that inquiry organized and refereed by the infamous Judge John Gomery.
It's the right message, but the wrong guy is touting it. No offense to Mr. Savoie, but we know where he stands on a host of policies through his actions and words over the years.
And I can safely say, it's not on the side of less government, lower taxes and scrapping regional subsidy programs.
I'd be comfortable in Savoie touting this message. To be honest, it was refreshing to see someone of his caliber come out and finally tell it like it is, especially since some of his backers and fans have called me narrow minded for advocating the same thing.
I think the same can be said for McKenna and scrapping ACOA. I've said this over and over again only to be vilified by other bloggers, but there is a collective silence of agreement when the former liberal premier says it. Go figure.
Cutting important regulators may be bad public policy but putting incentives into place for BNB bureaucrats may deserve a second look.
long called for.
anon: I agree. We should be recruiting more doctors, nurses and teachers (compensating them at market value), not searching out more ED consultants looking to feed off the trough.
d stewart: thx for droppin' in.
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