3 million Manitobans and an ever- stronger economy


Peter Holle I


t’s 2036 and Manitoba’s population just passed three million. The econo- my is booming. Imagine for a moment the events need- ed to bring Manitoba to such a result. In 2018, let’s suppose, Manitoba finally con- fronted its slow-growth, deficit-ridden crisis by abandoning heavy government ownership of the economy, punitive tax rates and dependency on federal transfer grants. By narrowing government’s role in the economy, the new direction kick- started the economy and made the prov- ince a Mecca for people and investment. By holding public sector growth well be- low that of the private sector, Manitoba doubled its rate of economic growth. Par- adoxically, a faster-growing pie produced more tax revenue for public services. Government returned to its core tasks of funding core services, setting standards and measuring performance. It opened up the education and health-care industries, empowering both employees and con- sumers through the magic of choice and competitive innovation. Those sectors be- came dynamic export industries that add- ed value to the broader economy, instead of subtracting from it.


Complementing the separation of public funding from delivery, new per- formance and cost measurement systems made public services more transparent. Government began to focus on outcomes and outputs rather than process, rules and red tape, and posted simpler, lower administrative overheads. The separation made politicians’ jobs easier by depoliti- cizing public services and shifting their focus back to the consumers they serve. New technology and vast service improve- ments followed as service providers rapid- ly added value to their offerings to attract and retain customers.


By ending the sluggish public monopo-


lies and moving to a system of compet- ing public and private providers, a trans- formed health-care system became the province’s largest export industry and a hotbed for research and value-added ac- tivity. Consumers used the Internet to choose the facilities with the best quality and shortest waiting lists, diverting de- mand to underused facilities in smaller centres.


With payment based on the volume of


corporate taxes soared and exceeded the levies government had previously laid on the former Crowns.


Manitoba Hydro’s Keeyask and Bipole investment folly precipitated massive re- form of the province’s energy monopoly. Before selling off what had been Hydro's generation and distribution assets and re- sponsibilities, the then-new PC govern- ment recognized a $7 billion loss from unneeded


and uneconomic generation


and transmission assets. The loss was moved to the province's books and amor- tized with interest for 25 years, allowing electricity rates to be kept affordable for consumers and industry.


Do we have the courage to make the right choices for the future? Photo by Matt Wiebe.


service instead of last year’s budget, mar- ginal facilities closed down or turned to other uses. Many were sold to former public employees and private companies, who converted them into specialized clin- ics. The Mayo Clinic and other prestige health service providers moved in with the latest technologies to service thousands of Americans, capitalizing on our remain- ing currency advantage and the presence of research talent, with local customers accessing them during off-peak hours at rock-bottom rates charged to the public system. Waiting lists disappeared, while productivity gains and innovations, ab- sent in the old monopoly model, dramati- cally reduced costs.


Public education similarly changed. In- stead of a politicized cost centre, it became a thriving economic driver. The province consolidated funding by dumping proper- ty taxes, simply sending money to schools based on enrolment. Quality control was assured by widespread testing and publi- cizing of results.


Parent-teacher councils at schools re-


placed school boards, which removed ex- pensive, multiple layers of administration. Individual schools and organizations ne- gotiated their own contracts with teach- ers, but the profession prospered. It came to resemble the accounting, engineering and legal professions, with star or master teachers earning up to $250,000 a year. Entrepreneurial teachers formed their own schools and school chains. Under- used or closed facilities re-opened prov-


ince-wide as the teaching industry aggres- sively marketed its services to thousands of foreign students. Impressive new efficiencies in these two industries helped pay for carefully planned, but dramatic, tax reductions which made Manitoba Canada’s most attractive place for investment and job creation. To maxi- mize economic growth, the top personal income tax rate fell more than half, to a flat eight per cent from 17.4 per cent over a three-year period, and corporate rates went to the same level. Payroll taxes ended immediately. The provincial sales tax was reduced by one per cent and then harmo- nized with the GST to simplify adminis- tration and pump up private investment by private business, which benefitted from expanding input tax credits on purchases of new plant and equipment. By keep- ing the same rate over a larger base, the province raised $200 million more in sales tax revenues by 2020. One per cent of the combined rate was transferred to munici- pal governments on a per capita basis. The provincial government chose to regulate the services provided by MPI, WCB, MLL and Hydro (other than the transmission network) rather than run them. Citizens benefited greatly when the government broke up the public monopo- lies by selling their assets and operational licences to the private sector, ending the domination of government-zoned-and- run services. The private sector firms that took over what had been government-run services were joined by competitors, and


A particularly important reform re- structured transmission, generation and retailing of the monopoly into separate operating entities. Ownership of trans- mission assets was transferred to consum- ers and managed through elected local government trusts across the province, in ways similar to the co-ops of today. Both generation and retail were opened


up to competition, enjoying, for the first time, much enhanced transparency and accountability. Competing natural


gas


and electricity operations were separated before privatization. Due to sharply accel- erating population growth and new and expanded industries – and also to the ma- jor policy reform across the economy and government – another good result was that the Keeyask Dam’s capacity was serv- ing the domestic market some 20 years earlier than expected.


Dozens of other reforms lifted barriers to growth throughout the economy, two of them especially important. Targeted housing supplements for low-income earners replaced the remaining vestiges of rent control. This revitalized Winnipeg’s historic downtown and set off a boom that eventually created 100,000 new housing units. A unilateral withdrawal from sup- ply management allowed the egg, poultry and dairy industries to expand rapidly at the base of a diversified food processing sector, creating tens of thousands of new jobs.


Young people scratch their heads when the old-timers talk about Manitoba’s once “have-not” economy….


Does this sound too good to be true? With some vision and a lot of leadership it could happen.


Peter Holle is president of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, www.fcpp.org


wrong most of the time and could put patients at risk.


Home blood pressure monitors panned in study A


small Canadian study suggests that readings from home blood pressure monitors devices are


A research team from the University of Alberta in Calgary, testing dozens of home monitors used by 85 patients, found the units weren't accurate within five mmHg of blood pressure about 70 per cent of the time. The investigators added the devices were off the mark by at least 10 mmHg about 30 per cent of the time.


Research team leader Jennifer


Ringrose said such an inaccuracy could have serious consequences for people's health. The group tested averaged 66 years of age. "Monitoring for and treat- ing high blood pressure can lower the consequences of this disease," she said. "We need to make sure that home blood pressure readings are accurate." Should people who have bought and use these monitors toss them out? Maybe not. Ringrose says there are a number of ways to minimize such inac- curate readings.


First, she said, "compare the blood pressure machine measurement with a


blood pressure measurement in a clinic before exclusively relying upon home readings. What's really important is to do several blood pressure measure- ments and base treatment decisions on multiple readings."


Ringrose says home monitoring can still be very useful because it empow- ers patients. It is helpful for clinicians to have a bigger picture, rather than just one snapshot in time." The study was published recently in the American Journal of Hypertension. Co-author Raj Padwal warns how- ever that patients should not have


blood pressure medications started or changed based on one or two measure- ments taken at a single point in time unless the readings are clearly elevated. Certain factors – inappropriately sized arm cuffs, or patients with a specific type of blood pressure – may combine with inaccurate readings to give some patients a "a false sense of security," he said.


Patients who use these automated blood pressure devices are urged to take them to their physicians once or even twice to measure their accuracy against an office-based manual measurement.


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12 www.lifestyles55.net July 2017


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