First, politician, do no harm

Once upon a time, a doctor poisoned his patient. Just as the patient was starting to fall ill the doctor quickly administered an antidote to save him. “You owe your life to me,” the doctor told him. “If I hadn’t neutralized the poison, you’d be dead.” The patient asked, “But why did you poison me in the first place?” Replied the doctor: “If I hadn’t, I would not have had the chance to save your life — and saving lives is my business.”

It’s the same logic we see from governments that do so many things to make people poor, only to spend billions of dollars to rescue them from poverty. That was the finding of a new report by the Conservative Official Opposition following a ninemonth cross-country House of Commons committee study on “Poverty Reduction Strategies.” The committee heard from 162 witnesses on why people are poor and what we can do about it. Liberals and New Democrats each filed their own reports.

Witness testimony revealed a growing list of government actions that impoverish people and widen the gap between rich and poor.

For example, governments have pushed thousands of people to rely on food banks by raising electricity and home heating bills to fund subsidies to wealthy so-called “green energy” investors. The same governments then claim they need new programs to help people put food on the table.

Municipal and provincial governments impose costly delays and red tape on builders, which Ken Green from the Fraser Institute says adds $20,000 to $60,500 to the cost of a housing unit. Those same politicians then lament that people can no longer afford to put a roof over their heads and so taxpayers need to pay more for affordable housing. A new report by the Conservative Official Opposition heard from witness testimony that reflects a growing list of government actions that widen the gap between rich and poor.

Government-mandated professional associations delay and obstruct foreigntrained immigrants from getting licences to work in their professions in Canada, forcing qualified doctors and engineers into lowincome jobs. Then governments say we need new programs to help low-income immigrants. lose their housing and drug benefits. That effectively bans them from working their way out of poverty. The solution according to politicians? More government welfare programs.

Speaking of welfare, corporate welfare transfers scarce resources from the poor and middle-class taxpayers to the wealthiest one