a.    We have too much bureaucracy – cut at the administrative level

                                  i.    It’s inefficient and ineffective (and thank God for that.  Imagine how much more over regulated we’d be if we got all the “government” we are paying for!)

                                ii.    It strangles the free market and innovation

2.    Eliminate carbon capture programs & taxes

a.    The science is questionable

b.    It increases the cost of doing business in Canada

                                  i.    Drives investment off shore

                                ii.    Replaces wealth producing jobs in the private sector with more bureaucratic positions – a further burden

3.    Eliminate foreign aid, or drastically reduce it

a.    Divert those funds to infrastructure, not programs

b.    Spend on domestic needs

c.    I’m confident that what actually reaches the needy/indigent is a small fraction of what is budgeted and spent.

4.    Lower taxes

a.    Leave more money under the control of those who produced it

                                  i.    They’ll reinvest and grow their companies

b.    More jobs = more taxes

5.    Transfer payments are abused.  Eliminate or drastically reduce them.  Put stricter controls on what that money can be used for. 

a.    Every citizen should have a “right” to choose to live where they want but they have no right to be subsidized for that choice.

b.    “Have not” provinces are not using them to create wealth-producing jobs in the private sector; they’re increasing public sector spending, providing more social programs than the tax payers in the “have” provinces receive.

6.    Quit hiding the true cost of health care.  It stifles needed changes by fooling people into thinking our system is less expensive than it really is. 

a.    Allow more choice, including private providers. 

b.    Allow funding to follow the patient instead of being paid to hospitals.  Te current model is dysfunctional. 

                                  i.    Patients are treated as expenses – charges against the hospital’s budget.  The fewer you serve the more money administrators have to give themselves raise.  I don’t think that’s the intended result (or at least it shouldn’t be).

7.    Privatize, privatize, privatize.  There is nothing that government does more effectively/productively than “for profit” companies can do better.

8.    Remove public service union’s right to strike.  Remove tenure and restore meritocracy.  Contract out these services.  And in the process eliminate or drastically reduce the administrative jobs associated with these government departments

Gary Bikman, Deputy Mayor
Stirling AB