“Penny wise, pound foolish,” is an old saw we repeat for the benefit of those who obsess over trifles while ignoring larger problems. The recipients of such wisdom, as you probably already know, seldom appreciate the help.
When you’re looking at something as large as the federal budget, though, it’s almost impossible to figure where the pennies end and the pounds begin.
For instance, the government could save about $130 million a year in needless expenses by simply dispensing with the penny as the smallest unit of our currency. Hardly anybody uses them anymore, producing them is a waste of resources and keeping them is a household encumbrance.
There would be no change in prices at the grocery store if this happened. Your tally of all items, plus tax, would be rounded to the nearest nickel. Sometimes it’s rounded up ($15.73 becomes $15.75), sometimes it’s rounded down ($8.92 becomes $8.90); the law of averages keeps these events even.
But aside from missing the dead weight in your purse or pocket, you won’t see any benefit from saving $130 million off the federal budget, although it’s about $4 per Canadian per year.
Our federal government, which hails itself as a bastion of fiscal probity, is cutting expenses on the next federal census by $30 million. About a buck per Canadian.
Do you feel the richer?
The money was supposed to be spent to encourage the very rich, the very poor and aboriginal Canadians to voluntarily take full part in the census, because we no longer have a law compelling them to do so. Therefore, experts believe these groups will be under-represented in census data, making the national population picture less than reliable. Would $30 million have convinced them all to fill out the long forms if they got one? Probably not, so a penny saved becomes a penny earned.
But ask yourself, what if the $130 million in savings from discarding the penny, plus the $30 million saved from not bothering people about silly census forms, were put to other uses?
For instance, how much more assistance for people with mental illness would the $160 million buy?
While some groups are lobbying to discard the penny and others to restore the census (neither one being really heard in cabinet), yet other groups have recently suggested mental health programs need greater federal financial support.
What province or territory would refuse another $10 million to $12 million to enlarge staff for outreach and support programs?
When money actually makes its way out of government budgets and onto the street, the pennies begin to count. Especially for those individuals who weren’t getting any help, if they began to receive some. If this were to happen, would you feel the poorer?
Ten million sounds like a lot, but it’s pennies on a government budget. Grocery stores might some day round out pennies, but governments already round out tens of millions. (If Finance Minister Jim Flaherty were to notice $10 million on the floor of the federal treasury, would he stoop to pick it up?)
This poses an opportunity for local charities. The first to come out with an end-of-the-penny drive might actually accumulate some cash. Issue charitable receipts by the kilo of pennies.
It’s money few people would miss from their jar of change in the house and collecting it might save the government a few cents (make that millions) to round them up.
Then we could focus on the pounds, like where we’d find the billions needed to buy a new fleet of fighter jets.
Greg Neiman is an Advocate editor.