VICTORIA: The BC division of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today wrote to Premier-elect Gordon Campbell to request the appointment of a minister without portfolio, specifically to begin a full review of the size, scope and role of government.

"The last decade was one of imperial 'over-stretch' where the government attempted too much, and as a result, did little well," wrote CTF-BC director Mark Milke in a letter to the incoming Premier. In the letter, the Federation requests that a cabinet minister without portfolio be appointed to fully analyze:

A): what services should be paid for and delivered by the public sector;
B): what services should be paid for by the public sector but delivered by the private
sector;
C): what areas should be regulated by government but left in the hands of the private
sector to both pay for and deliver; and
D): what should be placed in the private sector via privatization or other forms of outright
government divesture.

The Federation's letter points out that a successful review of what government should be involved in, along with specific and real changes, would allow the new government to focus on core activities of government, and in so doing more successfully carry out those core objectives.

"After all, if Germany could embark upon such an exercise after the merging of the former eastern and western states, surely British Columbia could and should embark upon such a review twelve years fater the fall of the Berlin Wall," wrote Milke.