Many government services (and their BIG costly bureaucracies) exist that were once vital but are no longer needed. Two classic examples are Canada Post and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
There is no doubt that these federal crown corporations were essential to developing Canada over the past couple of centuries. They provided services required by the public that weren’t economically viable for the private sector to provide because Canada covers such a large geographical area. But, seriously, are they really needed today?
Canada Post has been losing money for years. It recently confirmed that it lost $269 million in 2013 and $27 million before taxes in the first quarter of this year. Why the losses? Because it’s the 21st century! More and more of us use email.
The government should use this situation to start handing over the service to private sector mail and package distributors like FedEx and UPS. Instead, Canada Post is fighting to stay alive by introducing community mailbox delivery to 11 communities in Fall 2014, hiking the price of stamps to $1.00, opening more franchise postal outlets, adjusting hours in low-traffic offices and streamlining its operation network.
CBC is in the same boat. CBC gets an annual $1.1 billion dollar subsidy from Canadian taxpayers. This has been going on for years despite the fact that its TV audiences have been shrinking for a long time due to competition from CTV, Global, cable TV channels of all sorts, and other forms of entertainment and news delivery. The CBC’s situation will be getting worse soon because it will lose the rights to Hockey Night in Canada after this season.
The Harper Government has started the process of shrinking the CBC by trimming its annual subsidy by $115 million this year. However, they should do more. They should use this situation to start eliminating portions of CBC such as their TV dramas and comedy shows, which are definitely not essential services in the 21st century!
Today, there are numerous private sector alternatives for traditional government services like postal delivery, news & entertainment, and waste management. These private sector alternatives are successful and growing because they can meet taxpayers’ needs as well as, if not better than, the public sector can.
So when should a government service be cut? Easy – when the private sector can handle it. Taxpayers should only foot the bill when they have to.
