OVER-GOVERNED

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 August 1931, Page 10

OVER-GOVERNED

FEELING IN CANADA. VANCOUVER. June 10. The need for economy, arising from the prevailing depression, is giving point to the reflection that Canada, is very much over-governed. The Dominion* has nine Provincial Parliaments, with a total of 569 members, a House of Commons with 245 members, and a Senate with 96 members—in all 910 members to govern a population of less than 10,000,000 people. In addition, there is in each province a Lieutenant-Governor with a, Government. House and a little Court, aides-de-camp, secretaries, officials, and attendants. Each Legislature has its Cabinet, Civil Service, and supernumerary official establishments. This conviction of being overgoverned is spreading. A meeting of Conservatives at Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, unanimously endorsed a resolution tabled by the President, that the Provincial Legislature should be reduced from 48 to 20 members. The mover stressed the point that it required twice as many men to manage the affairs of the province as were on the directorate of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which is the largest transport, unit in the world. With proposals to reduce the personnel oi; Parliament being actively canvassed, the system of party government is being put. to severe tests. There is not much difference between the policies of Liberals and Conservatives at Ottawa. In fact, the latter charged that their policy was plagiarised by the Liberals to produce thq last Budget of the Mackenzie King regime. If such be accepted, where is the need for continuing the party system? Why not the elective system, as practised by big corporations and businesses? The affairs of a province are Very simple. There are no fundamental questions on which there is need of a division of opinion. All a province needs is an honest, efficient businesslike administration. Experiperience has shown that, one party can bo as efficient as another. How much more so would a merger of the most efficient elements of all parties be? It is more a question of individuals than parties. VALUE OF COMMISSIONS. The administration of the nation’s affairs at Ottawa has never been entrusted to a Commission. Yet the Federal Government will delegate wide powers to a Royal Commission to investigate big national projects and, on receipt of its report, act on it, just as would a board of directors on the recommendation of its technical experts. Yet no hoard of directors would waste its time on the verbal pyrotechnics displayed by Parliament on the Address-in-Reply, the Budget, Estimates, and major pieces of legislation.

A typical illustration of this delega-

tion of powers to a Commission is the case of the three maritime provinces. In the throes of economic depression in 1925, the Government of Canada came to their aid and set up a Royal Commission, known since as the Duncan Commission, which made recommendations calculated to restore prosperity. The Federal Government implemented the recommendations of the Commission. No heavy work or responsibility worried the Legislature. Its members accepted the Commission’s report as something they could not compile themselves. In threefourths of their volume, the Duncan Commission’s report was adopted. In its details, neither the Government nor Parliament interfered. It was the same with the Wheat Commission, Sir Josiah Stamp was brought from England to preside over it. The Stamp Commission’s report will be adopted;’

of that there is no doubt. The Fish-, cries Commission sat for a year; what it recommends will be adopted, provided funds are available. The more efficient these Commissions prove themselves to be the less is the need for speeches in Parliament. There are several cities;in Canada which have larger population, bigger Budgets, and more complex forms of government than several of the provinces. These cities have no need for party in the conduct of their affairs. The provinces have as little need,