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It certainly is not new to suggest big budget government expenditures are controversial. Increasingly, the public is asked to pay for outrageously large spending projects put forward by governments, even those governments whose electoral promises claimed to commit to reducing spending.
Provincial governments are often the worst culprits when it comes to ambushing the taxpayer with mega-project spending initiatives. Witness British Columbia, where the Provincial Liberal party swept to power eighteen months ago on the promise of smaller government, fewer - if any - subsidies for business and vastly reduced government spending. Then witness the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Winter Olympics bid. This summer, Premier Gordon Campbell committed - with a matching commitment from the federal government - to an initial public investment of $310 million to support the Olympic venture. Smells a lot like a subsidy. The Winter Olympics bid support was offered with little public consultation, no direct public voice and despite various polls indicating the public does not want to invest in the project. It isn't as though the public is not interested in how its governments spend taxpayers' hard earned cash. Largely, they haven't been asked. We certainly don't need the public to approve every decision government makes. We elect our officials believing they're committed to the same philosophies and program priorities we are. But in the interim, we have no control over what happens to our hard earned funds. In that spirit - and in light of recently announced hospital and school closures throughout the province - those opposed to the Olympics have called on Premier Campbell to hold a referendum on the issue. "Let the public decide," they say, "if they wish to see hundreds of millions of dollars directed at this two week adventure." I'll go them one further: introduce direct democracy on all unbudgeted items. If government is truly committed to lower government spending, we need to enact legislation creating a spending threshold over which government requires public approval before spending public money. It is not entirely unprecedented procedure. Many organizations - like strata corporations or charities, for example - already place limits on those authorized to dole out the dough. If the board of the strata or charity feels a need to go over that limit, a vote by the full ownership or membership is required.
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