We All Have Responsibility to Be Fiscally Responsible

Some good news for Manitobans today.   The deficit is smaller than what was anticipated.  Regardless, our province, our city, and our country has massive debt loads.  We don't seem to mind.  I guess that is because so many of us live with crushing debt.  Every six months or go, the Governor of the Bank of Canada releases statistics on the debt load of Canadians.  It has always been going up and every time he makes an announcement, he announces it is a new record.  What happened to not buying things until we could afford them.  I remember 25 years ago being horrified when I saw someone put their groceries on a credit card.  How could they not budget effectively to put their groceries as part of necessary expenses?  Now, I confess, I have done the same thing.  We are comfortable with debt.  

Also, in Manitoba, the minimum wage will rise in Monday by $.15.  I guess it is good that it is increasing, but hardly close to a living wage.  

We are in the midst of a civic election and I am taking an active interest in it and am attending as many forums and meetings of candidates that I can.  I'm trying to separate out the personal attacks on one another.  I have great respect for anyone who runs for public office, so I don't pay attention to disrespectful personal comments.  I am also not paying attention to outrageous statements that can not be corroborated.  In the vein, there is one ad that I have trouble with and it is my the Police Association.  It personally blames Bowman for not having enough 911 operators.  I don't think that is a fair ad and it doesn't sit well with me.  

Aside from that, there has only been one comment that has really turned me off.  It was from a candidate for Councillor.  She was asked a question and deflected it by talking about her skills as a negotiator and her promise was that she would not leave $1 on the table from any federal or provincial government.  She would squeeze both levels of government for all money that she could get.  

I have worked in both the public sector and the private sector.  In both sectors, I have been in jobs where the fiscal year has been coming to a close and our departments were quite under budget.  We would meet as a team and discuss how we could spend this money or else the surplus would have to be sent back and likely our budget for next year would be reduced.  We would go on big shopping sprees.  We would buy supplies for next year.  We brought out our wish list that we had previously put away.  New office furniture for everyone !!  I'm embarrassed now that I was part of this.  

I learned a different way from a physician I worked with in long term care.  There were so many examples of this.  We had a male resident who had made very specific instructions in writing about what he wanted in medial treatment.  He essentially didn't want any.  He did not want any intrusive or aggressive treatment.  He only wanted treatment designed specifically for comfort.  He named his daughter his Health Care Proxy.  This was when he was of sound mind and before he was diagnosed with dementia.  A lump was discovered in his stomach and he was sent for tests and analysis.  The surgeon confirmed that it was cancer and it was growing.  The surgeon also indicated that surgery had a high probability of success.  It seemed simple and we were ready to book the surgery.  The physician stopped us reminding us of what the man had stated in his written instructions.  We made the arguement that this was relatively simple surgery and he likely would want this.  The physician responded that we were to respect people's autonomy and that we all had a responsibility to be fiscally responsible with health care dollars.  The daughter stepped in and advocated for her father's wishes while telling us that if it was up to her, he would have the surgery, but she had a responsibility for advocating for what her father wanted.  

Ethical dilemmas occur daily in long term care.  The physician would always remind us that we all had a responsibility to be physically responsible.  That was something we didn't want to hear because we didn't want to base ethical decisions on money.  So, we would go through an ethical framework to discuss.  We discussed a 100 year old woman that was taking 15 pills every day.  Many of her pills were taken to offset side effects from other pills.  She was having difficulty swallowing and was spitting most of them out rather than swallowing.  In the end, we went with her physician recommendation to discontinue her medication.  It actually improved her quality of life.  And it saved the tax payers about $300/month.  Not a huge amount and the decision was not based on this, but I always remember that physicians comment that we all have a responsibility to be fiscally responsible for health care dollars.  

I try to do my part.  

Yet, a candidate for city Council is bragging that she won't leave any federal or provincial money on that table.  That is contributing to our current problem of deficits and not contributing to the solution. Yet, she got some applause.  We have lost some fundamental values somewhere.  The first value is cooperation.  Would she not enhance relationships with other levels of government by demonstrating that she was only going to take what she needed?  The second value that we have lost is not spending money until we have earned.  We have become so comfortable with debt, that when the governments release their data, it is meaningless to us.  We have become conditioned to deficits.  

The problem is that we spend in public and save in private.  Have you ever looked at some of your neighbours and wondered how they are making it?  You have a rough idea of their income and they seem to be living above it.  Well, it is simple.  They are not making it, they are deep in debt.  I remember when I bought my first house.  I didn't sleep for two nights because it was the first time I was in debt.  My ex-husband and I started buying many houses and renting them out.  I would sign mortgage papers with regularity.  I didn't miss any sleep.  I had become conditioned to the debt.  

Whether we realize it or not, we are in a debt crisis in society.  Even if we acknowledge this is true, we are still not able to do our part to be fiscally responsible.  Yet, restaurants, shopping opportunities, and new developments are popping up everywhere.  The parking lots of restaurants seem full every night of the week.  Skip the Dishes is thriving.  BDI (an ice cream palace) participates in \Skip the Dishes.  Skip the Dishes just made a huge contribution to our Santa Claus Parada so I am not going to knock them, but, really, add ice cream to your shopping list so you have a cheap way to get your fix rather than using Skip for an ice-cream order.  (I also know BDI is really good, but part of the experience is going there.)  

The point is we need roles models for fiscal restraint.   We obviously are not going to be inspired from each other.  Maybe we need examples of our civic government leaving federal or provincial dollars on the table.  Maybe we need to look to the government to show us the way to fiscal responsibility