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Friday, May 20, 2011

Cut the motion on your backswing, listen up Tony, it's the right thing

So... Tony Clement says that he won't rule out axing programs in order to reduce public service spending, even though the Conservatives' previous line had been that the reductions would only come through attrition.

Is anybody really surprised? If nothing else, we should remember that the Tories are small-government people, as is most of the right these days. From the man himself:

“Some programs that may have been excellent 30 years ago and served a purpose 30 years ago may not be appropriate and may not be the best way to expend public resources in this day and age,” Clement said in an interview with the Citizen.

“Not every program needs to be protected,” he said.

“I don’t want to be on the record as saying absolutely everybody is guaranteed their job forever. That’s not likely, nor is it desirable.”


Well... except once you reach a certain level in the public service you are practically guaranteed to keep your job. That's one of the main reasons people work for the public service, job security.

And while it's true that programs that were excellent 30 years ago might be irrelevant today, what that means to me is that those resources (the money and the staff for those programs) should be redistributed to where they will be the most useful today. It's important to be flexible, but simply axing programs isn't flexibility.

Anyway. In light of these potential cuts, as well as the fact that Clement was a major supporter of Mike Harris's slash-and-burn policies, I thought we could use a little Moxy Fruvous:

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