Manitoba: The Supplicant Society

November 17, 2011

Several years ago, the government of Manitoba proposed the provincial slogan “Spirited Energy” to signify the strengths of Manitoba society. There are no doubt many, including friendliness and respect for ethnic diversity.

However, compared with other provinces, in many respects we are doing poorly. Personal incomes are lower, and taxes are higher.3 Productivity and ratings as a competitive business environment are lower. Crime rates are frightening. Conditions in many First Nations communities are intolerable. Our healthcare system combines relatively high costs with poor outcomes. Our major university continues to rank dead last in its category in the leading national quality survey. Infrastructure is crumbling. The provincial debt is mounting. A major cause of this distressing situation is the lack of balance and diversity in Manitoba’s institutions, and communities, which causes individual freedom, choice and prosperity to suffer. The commercial, non-profit and local government sectors here are overshadowed, and to a large extent controlled, by the provincial government.

One way to gauge the malaise is to survey the supposed remedies. The province offers tax rebates on tuition for students who stay or come to Manitoba after completing post-secondary degrees. Would a materially and spiritually thriving community have to subsidize even its own emerging talent to stay? An apologist might argue that we cannot begin to compete with a province full of oil and gas, but this is not much of an excuse. We have hydroelectricity, and it is renewable. It could generate much better returns to the people of Manitoba if Hydro's mandate were clarified and its governance improved. Instead, the Crown Corporation piles up debt and wastes hundreds of millions of dollars on boondoggles such as a power line on the west side of the province. Manitoba’s natural endowments also include forests, farmland and rivers, but free, diverse and well-governed societies can achieve prosperity even without natural resources. Bitter experience shows that resource-rich, but corrupt or oppressive societies can remain poor.