According to a recent Léger survey, 75% of taxpayers believe they are not getting value for their money in relation to the taxes paid. Ottawa obtains the worst results, closely followed by Quebec.
It is frustrating to see that the Trudeau government takes care of things that are none of its business, such as daycare, dental care and others, but provides poor services in the sectors under its responsibility. At the same time, it underfinances its share of health care, the costs of which are still rising significantly.
Services are deteriorating, but, paradoxically, the number of federal civil servants is growing strongly. Since 2015, when the Liberals took power, the number has increased from 257,000 to 357,000, an increase of almost 40%. As a taxpayer, is it normal to wait between one and two hours to speak to an official from the Canada Revenue Agency when it has 59,000 employees?
Not to mention the growing use of external consultants, whose current bill is around 21 billion. How can we explain that this army of civil servants was unable to produce a form that was simple enough for ArriveCAN, and that it ultimately had to pay 59.5 million to consultants?
Such an addition of civil servants contributed to deteriorating the budgetary situation. Since 2015, the debt has increased from 628 to 1331 billion. The pandemic is far from explaining everything. The Trudeau government is a spendthrift and improperly uses our collective credit card.
Mismanagement. Incompetence. Waste. Taxpayers are right to be frustrated!
The resentment is no less towards the Quebec state. Difficult access to family doctors, surgical operations postponed for too long, overwhelmed emergency rooms, lack of places in CHSLDs and daycares, legal delays leading to Jordan judgments, lack of teachers and other professionals, fiasco of the Automobile Insurance Company of Quebec are fueling the discontent. Not to mention the poorly maintained roads, bridges, hospitals, and places of education!
Many services are at or near breaking point. Even the dead now have to queue: the media recently told us that the average time to obtain a death certificate was 43 days…
In Quebec too, since the arrival of the Legault government, the number of civil servants has increased significantly. Excluding numbers in health and education, these increased by 10,624; an increase which reaches 72,800 when we include these two networks. However, initially, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) promised a reduction of 5,000 civil servants…
Despite all these deficiencies, the Legault government forecasts a record deficit of 11 billion, of which 4 billion is structural. These will not disappear without significant cuts.
The disappointment of citizens is all the greater since the main leaders of the CAQ come from the business community, experienced people who said they knew how to manage… In addition, when the latter came to power , the province’s finances showed a significant surplus.
Governments, at different levels, often manage very short-sightedly. Thus, it has long been predicted that the current decade would see more retirements than arrivals on the job market. What measures have been planned by governments to minimize the impact of this problem? Almost none.
On the contrary, in education, for example, the CAQ aimed to open 2,600 four-year-old kindergarten classes. As if there would be no shortage of teachers! Regardless of the relevance of the project, this is an example of poor situation analysis. Due to a lack of teachers and premises, we are now starting to close the classes that are already open.
To the credit of governments, many citizens expect them to solve all the problems… while lowering taxes! Magical thinking!
In the delivery of services, governments also have to deal with numerous constraints. Let’s think about the corporatism of doctors. Why did they take so long to delegate more actions to nurses and other health professionals? To create physician assistant positions, when this function exists in the nine other provinces? Fortunately, they are now showing more openness. Constraints also at the level of union rigidities.
The retirement of a very large number of resources has also led to a significant loss of expertise.
In this rather difficult context, governments must find their compasses, stop spreading themselves thin and concentrate on their essential missions!