Wednesday Night Salon # 939

1st March 2000

David gave a special introduction of Comrade Harry, who needs no introduction as he has been coming to Wednesday Night since 1979. On 16th April, Harry will celebrate his 90th Birthday. In addition, Harry will have two shows this Spring, one at the Victoria Hall "Gallery" and another at the Maison de Culture.
(Query: Does Victoria Hall qualify as a Maison de Culture?)

Following a video of Bowser (sans Bleu), appropriately singing "C'est la faute du federal", we turned to the Topics of the Evening.

The Federal Budget

David played some short extracts from the media coverage of Paul Martin and his budget in order to stimulate the discussion. Given the presence of the Right view (Martin Barnes) and the Left (Julius Grey), stimulation of discussion was not an issue. Their debate was opinionated, articulate and filled with good humour. It was, in other words, a treat.

The Budget eliminated "bracket creep" by fully indexing the tax brackets to the rate of inflation. The RRSP foreign content rules are being relaxed, as is the taxation on capital gains. There is a reduction in personal tax, which will amount to a few hundred dollars per year for most people. Julius commented that "taxes are not immoral">/i>, - just part of the redistribution of wealth. While he is happy to see measures taken to stimulate the economy, he felt that more should have been spent on social programs, like health, education and welfare. In Martin's view " Canada has paid a price for following Julius' policy. Spending on social programs has led us into the debt and the need to repay billions of dollars. Better not to have spent on social programs in the 60's, 70's and 80's so that we might have that money today for the programs.

But, would we now have had the policies and programs supporting social needs, higher education if we hadn't incurred the debt by supporting them then?

Carole Spiers remarked that there has been little program spending because of the cost of servicing the debt.

Governments did not realize that by introducing entitlement programs they would bring about debt - in at least one opinion, "this was a policy screw-up".

Martin pointed out that since 26 cents of every dollar spent by the Government goes to service the national debt, debt repayment should be a priority. However,he also acknowledged that the economy would be strengthened further if larger tax cuts were made.

Guy Stanley - "The Government is the supplier of last resort". There is a tremendous opportunity cost associated with how the $10 billion is spent.

Julius - What is the value of freedom? Canada enjoys an excellent quality of life - one of the highest in the world. A great example of social democracy at work.

Martin commented that the tax system in Canada is punitive. There are three basic options for building a better country: 1. Lower taxes 2. Spend on Programs 3. Debt reduction. Which of the three has the best overall multiplier effect on the economy? Julius -times of high inflation are good times to build up debt.

There was virtual agreement that spending during the Trudeau years (in particular) based on planned income, which did not materialize, is the reason for the massive debt that Canada built up. The National Energy Program was pointed to as THE - major villain.

Meisels' Market Tips

In a change of topic, Ron Meisels gave some of his recommendations on stock buying. He has issued a buy recommendation on (CAE bot at $13). They have a new President, and are concentrating on their core strengths. There is and will be a great shortage of pilots, and CAE is a leader in the production of flight simulators. Their longterm outlook is good. Another recommendation was Systems in Excellence - (SXC bot at $3.55) on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

A Point to ponder (based on comments from Peter Drucker)
Transfer of information on the Internet is free, but the challenge is to figure out how to optimize this information. The business models that companies use are no longer valid.

Healthcare

Dr. Mark Roper introduced his guest, Janet MacDonald, Head Nurse from the Montreal General Hospital Emergency Room. Speaking to the healthcare system, it was pointed out that $6 billion worth of cuts have been made since 1996, however the central bureaucracy is still intact. It is the important peripheral areas where patient healthcare is delivered that have been cut.
Mark commented that the Budget contained no support for "Homecare" or "Pharmacare".
Nurse General Janet felt there was sufficient funding in the healthcare system, if only it were used efficiently. (Editor's note: and this was before Mr. Landry's pronouncement on the reasons why the Quebec government had not spent any of $840M+ that was received from the Feds last year!)
Management should be decentralized and the central bureaucracy shrunk.
Urgences Sant� is in a mess. A 2-tier system is not the answer. One of the primary problems is the union, which is left wing and has a strong survival mentality. Because of the union and their seniority contract, there are many employees, who are being paid to stay at home, cutting into the productive use of the healthcare funds that are available.
Carole Spiers reminded us that the poor and disadvantaged are the underbelly of society and with the lack of extra spending on social services, this group in turn feeds the criminal class. In the US more is spent on the prison system, then on social services. In total, $2.5 billion over 4 years of extra spending for all social programs is included in this week's budget. This is a fraction of what has been cut out recently of health, education and other social programs.
Alberta seems to be moving towards a 2-tier healthcare system, similar to the one that already exists in the UK. In fact there is already an underground 2-tier system with people paying for cosmetic surgery.
Dr. Mark reiterated that the one problem in Quebec is the union. They use seniority based hiring and employees have job security after 2 years.
Julius recommends a meritocracy.
Other problems include a shortage of 180 anesthetists in Canada. At present there is 1 MD per 548 patients, this is expected to rise to 1 MD per 718 in the next few years. What is needed is a representative of the patient population at key negotiations between the Government and the unions. What should be debated is the cost to the community, not just the cost of the hospitals.
Prof Gerald Ratzer said that patients have a responsibility in their own healthcare - by what they eat, how much exercise they get and other personal considerations. Also, there are countries around the world, which spend much less per capita on healthcare, and have longer life expectancy than Canada and the States.
Conclusion
As usual, Comrade Harry contributed a thought-provoking conclusion to the evening. He asked, "What is a democracy?" In Europe countries are giving up national freedoms in favour for EU controls, since this serve the interests of the greatest number of people.
(Editor's note: Apparently the Europeans have not heeded the pronouncement of the PQ Leadership at the Youth Summit to the effect that sovereignty is the best weapon against globalisation.)
Notes by Professor Gerald Ratzer Edited by Diana Th�baud Nicholson