THUNDER BAY – From the rules you set, come the results you get. When a government spends money, it is almost always called an investment. Often the return on that investment is hard to calculate.
There is one area however where the spending of government funds can have the biggest return on the dollars spent. That area is investing in young people. Investments in education, youth programs, and youth activities can assure that Canadian youth can fully participate in the best of our Canada.
Often it seems that youth issues generate the greatest enthusiasm from governments, but equally in too many cases, the least actual effort. Perhaps it is that most young people don’t vote, while senior citizens do in far greater numbers.
Prime Minister Harper, speaking at the Crown First Nations Gathering in Ottawa said, “From the rules you set, come the results you get.”
That should serve as the motto for all of the Harper Government’s efforts. It is a profound statement from the Prime Minister.
For real investments in youth, it is bigger than just education, it is also in making sure that young people and younger adults have the ability to engage in positive activities outside of school too.
Looking at the future of Canada, which we all want to be the brightest in the world, it comes down to choosing what will be our priorities.
This morning, in Ottawa, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs John Duncan said, “Our Government recognizes that education is crucial to improving the quality of life for First Nations. We are committed to ensuring Aboriginals can prosper in Canada and take advantage of the opportunities that exist”.
At the federal level, right now the Conservative Government have set the military and their crime bill as major objectives. Critics have opposed those two goals as setting the wrong priorities or rules for our future.
“From the rules you set, come the results you get.”
The annual cost of housing a federal inmate is estimated as high as $200,000. Billions are projected to be spent building new prisons. The cost of each new fighter jet is estimated at about $9,000,000,000 each and the government is ordering sixty-five of them.
One wonders what the return on the investment will be on each fighter jet?
For each federal inmate in jail, the cost is massive, a five year sentence costs upward of a million dollars.
The question must be asked, what is Canada’s return on that investment? Or are there better, and more productive uses of those dollars?
What is sad however is that to question those purchases, the usual approach of the government has been to question the patriotism of those who do that. It is not unpatriotic to seek answers to questions.
“From the rules you set, come the results you get.”
Perhaps as a long-term strategy for the Harper Government, setting youth as the priority should be made the top priority.
Canada is a world leader, in so many fields. Being a world leader in investing in youth, in education, and in ourselves would have a massive and never-ending return on that investment.
Canada should set a goal to be the world’s leader in education and youth initiatives. If we put more time, energy and dollars into our youth, eventually perhaps would wouldn’t need the prison spaces, or the fighter jets at all?
Canada would be the envy of the world.
Neat goal isn’t it? Can we do it? I think we can. Do you? “From the rules you set, come the results you get.”
James Murray
Chief Content Editor