How Ottawa Spends 1985: Sharing the Pie

Kenneth M. Glazier was Chief Librarian Emeritus at the University of Calgary, Alberta.

Many marriages break down because of an inability to balance the family budget, and many political parties in government are defeated because of their inability to make an honest effort to balance the provincial or federal budget. Also, many treatises are written on why the government should control or reduce the deficit, but not many writers tell you precisely how and where this reduction should take place.

This publication is a collection of six essays by faculty members at Carleton University in the School of Public Administration. It is a scholarly treatise on how the present federal government (1985) spends our money to assist various projects such as housing, the oil and gas industry, the textile trade, pension plans, and social welfare. There are numerous tables, extensive notes, and bibliographical references to support the individual papers. The focus is on what the present Conservative government does now, or promises to do in the future, for the people of Canada. Those who are expecting to find solutions on how and when these spending areas will be controlled will be disappointed. The material is all about an overflowing “out basket” and very little about the “in basket:’ which is where the money will come from to make all these expenditures possible. The book is interesting and instructive, but it is also depressing when one looks at the situation in 1985 and projects what the national deficit will be in 1988 or 1989 when the mandate for the Conservative Government comes up for review.