Not unlike Stanley Kubrick's epic flick that comes of age this year, Manitoba's own "2001: A Tax Odyssey " is shaping up to be something of an unfulfilled fantasy.

When the movie 2001 premiered in 1968, Kubrick foretold travel to Jupiter and homicidal computers. Unless NASA is keeping things under wraps, Kubrick must be disappointed with today's pace of technological change.

Meanwhile, back on planet earth, the feelings of frustration with resistance to change are mutual. Year 2001 has come with few dramatic achievements to the province's finances. If the 1995 passage of Manitoba's balanced-budget law is the province's equivalent to the walk on the moon, there has since been little to celebrate.

Today's expectations of controlled spending, debt repayment and affordable taxes are denied with the same tired and ideologically driven excuses. Hence, oversized and meddling governments continue to thwart economic growth and tax the capacity of people to accomplish even greater scientific feats.

Over a third of the Manitoba's tax revenues come from the nanny state through federal transfers. The goal for 2002 should be economic independence from caregiver provinces like Alberta and Ontario. Nothing short of dramatic restructuring of the tax regime, spending priorities and the government apparatus will do.

Like all spending addicted provinces, the six-step program will help the Doer government on the road to recovery.

Step one: Create a flatter single rate of provincial income tax competitive with other provinces. Alberta's personal income tax falls to 10% for all income earners this year.

In 2001, Ontario's personal income tax rates fell to 6.2%, 9.24% and 11.16% compared to Manitoba's appalling tax rates of 10.9%, 16.2% and 17.5%.

Step two: Raise the $7,361 basic personal exemption and the $6,251 spousal deduction to a level competitive with the $11,620 benchmark set by Alberta.

Step three: Root out bracket creep. Fully index the tax brackets and credits to inflation. As tax brackets increase with inflation, a greater portion of personal income would be subject to the lower tax rates, meaning you pay less tax. Manitoba is one of the only provinces that has not yet outlawed stealth taxation through bracket creep.

Step four: Accelerate debt retirement.

Step five: Freeze spending. Overall government spending should stay in a holding pattern for the next two years as in-house tax revenues continue to rise. Increased health care funding, if necessary, should come at the cost of low priority spending.

Step six: Introduce competition, privatization and alternative service delivery to government. Cut and combine provincial ministries. Avoid bureaucratic hiring frenzies. Put all subsidy programs and crown corporations under the microscope and under the knife as well.

Kubrick's baby-boomer generation (which happens to include Premier Gary Doer) made some good movies. But their mixed economy and income redistribution policies sputtered off and misfired like failed Soviet rocket tests.

Limiting government and lowering taxes may be a bitter pill to swallow for the Doer administration, but in the long run will ensure the money continues to roll in for their sacred publicly funded health care and education programs. Besides, we'll all be a little richer for it.