The New Brunswick We Want

Twenty years ago, then-Prime Minister Kim Campbell said that an election campaign was not the time to be debating social or economic policy. Although election campaigns are supposed to be a clash of competing ideas and platforms, it can be argued that a four or five week election timeframe does not give voters sufficient time to become familiar with the various party positions and assess the ability of the different parties to actually deliver on their commitments.

Now that New Brunswick has adopted a fixed date election, with the next Provincial Election due on September 22, 2014, a discussion about the future of our Province need not be confined to the 32 days of the writ period (the time between the official call of the election and voting day). Perhaps we need to act on Ms. Campbell’s conclusion and, rather than waiting for the hurly-burly of the campaign to debate the future direction of the Province, we should start having this discussion now. Not only does this give us more time to deliberate on the issues facing our Province, this process would likely inform the positions taken by the political parties in their election planning.

So, if we are to focus on the issues of gravest importance to our Province, what would those be?

First, let’s avoid the “shopping list” approach where all the current grievances and controversies are transformed into an overlong list of “immediate” electoral promises. Instead, let’s take a deeper view into the problems we have and the solutions that are at hand. To me, there are four issues that need the focussed attention of citizens in order to prod action from our risk-adverse political machinery.

 

A Balanced Budget

The most critical policy, the one upon which all other policies are based, is with regard to the Provincial Budget. Right now, New Brunswick is caught in a vicious cycle of increasing deficits and rising debt. Even though provincial tax rates are increasing, provincial revenues are stagnant or declining. This means increased pain and little gain for the Province and its people.

But we need to reject the short-term “hack and slash” approach to fiscal matters. Yes, sometimes these measures do achieve a “balanced” budget – for a year or two. In the midst of controversial wage freezes, layoffs and service cuts, the underlying problems of public administration are ignored and the cost pressures continue to build.

New Brunswick needs to commit to a policy where deficits are the exception and balanced budgets are the norm. This is not the easiest of policies to follow but a balanced provincial budget is the best, if not the only, guarantor of our health care and public education systems.

Retooling Government

If we reject the “hack and slash” approach to budget-making, we also need to reject this approach when it comes to reforming the Provincial Public Service. We will not get the progress we need by under-valuing public servants and diminishing the work that they do.

Trends in public administration show us that changes to government spending solely driven by reducing costs invariably fail. Not only do the fiscal gains prove to be transitory, service cuts tend to be done in a haphazard manner that alienates the population.

The approaches that do succeed are those focussed on improving service to citizens. A service-orientation that provides more timely services to citizens saves money because it is more efficient. Using business process design, government activities are de-layered, de-cluttered and streamlined for service. Innovation, rather than risk-avoidance, becomes the key word for Government. t. By being smart and strategic, we can retool the Government of New Brunswick and both citizens and the economy will be the beneficiaries.

Improving Literacy

As recent headlines indicate, approximately one-half of New Brunswickers do not possess the literacy skills that we would expect from high school graduates. This is not a new problem. The fact that we continue to let this high level of illiteracy persist is as much of a problem as the lack of literacy itself. We are so used to this problem that we have “tuned it out” as an issue or believe that a solution is beyond our grasp

However, if we look at the other troubled policy areas in New Brunswick, we find that a lack of literacy is a major barrier to our success. You cannot have a modern labour force if one-half of potential employees cannot read at a high school level. You cannot support preventative health measures, or reduce the number of emergency hospitalizations, if patients cannot understand prescriptions or follow treatment plans. Investors will continue to be reluctant and economic growth will be hindered.

Like the tide that raises all boats, increasing literacy would have wide-spread benefits socially and economically.

 

Population Growth

The lack of population growth is a major underlying factor for many of the public policy challenges we face in New Brunswick. We are not only losing our best-educated and most talented young people on a daily basis; we also do not get the appropriate share of immigrants to help sustain our population levels. This decline in population has many negative attributes, from decreasing the amount of federal funding for cost-shared programs (like health and post-secondary education) to a decreasing work force and a general decline in economic strength.

The preference of New Brunswickers is to patriate those who have left seeking economic opportunities elsewhere. However, unless we can restore a sense of economic opportunity here, we are unlikely to make a difference on this front. Further, an immigration strategy that recruits new families to New Brunswick but does little to settle or integrate these new arrivals has proven to be unsuccessful.

New Brunswick needs a consistent and pro-active policy on population growth. A growing population has many benefits to New Brunswick, including bolstering the morale of the current population.

 

The New Brunswick we Want

Rather than postponing the discussion of our future to next September, we should seize the present opportunity to begun the conversation about our public policy priorities. We can have the New Brunswick we want – but only if we get to work on the underlying issues that are often hidden by today’s controversies.

- 30 -

Chris Baker is President of Continuum Research, a public opinion research firm specializing in public policy and public affairs. He served as the Deputy Minister, Policy and Priorities in the Government of New Brunswick from October 2006 to October 2008.

 

This article was originally published in the November 8, 2013 edition of The Telegraph-Journal