scotfl.ca

I love you, Sheila Fraser

Here, ladies and gentlemen, is the sort of thing I like to see: the government being held accountable for it’s spending practices.

“Each year, the government is spending tens of millions more than necessary,” Fraser said.

In one of the three reports she submits annually to Parliament, Fraser looked at six government agencies that administer drug plans to various groups, including aboriginals and Inuit, veterans, the military, some immigrants, inmates and some parolees.

She said the agencies did not use common cost-saving methods in its drug plans.

In one case, federal programs could have saved $13 million if they used the Defence Department’s practice of going for the lowest-cost alternative.

— ‘Government wasting millions in drug programs: Fraser’, CBC News

Note that there is no suggestion of eliminating services, or reducing them. There is only the idea that the services the government does provide should be managed as efficiently as possible. That is the first step towards fiscally responsible government. The second step is, of course, eliminating needless spending altogether, followed by reduction of the national debt.

Government should provide as few services as it can, and run those services as efficiently as possible. In that way, the things that need to be provided by the government (coin, courts, defense, basic health care) can be, but superfluous programs are not there to waste our tax dollars.

If the article only whets your appetite, there’s a nice summary, and the report itself to gorge yourself on. [Geeky sidenote: the Feds use Lotus.]

This entry was posted on 24 November 2004 at 15:30 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.