The winds of economic change are sweeping across Canada, and the cold winds are blowing into the U.S. as well. The effects of this change can be seen as potentially devastating within certain sectors. However, as is always the case will change, it opens the door to opportunity and new conventions.
     Governments in North America are scrambling to cut expenses in rein-in their budgets. They realize that they must reduce their respective federal budgets to strengthen their future position, and to avoid potential economic chaos.
      In Canada, the pressure is being relieved with the most drastic budget cuts in 40 years. Prime Minister Jean Chretien has planned $18 billion in cuts, about 15 percent of the total budget, with spending being slashed on everything from farm subsidies to unemployment insurance. An estimated 45,000 government jobs could be eliminated. Aid to dairy farmers will fall 30 percent, and subsidies to business will be slashed more than 60 percent. Also, Chretien plans to privatize the Canadian National Railway Co., and sell its 70 percent ownership of Petro-Canada. With the Canadian dollar having plunged to about 70 U.S. cents, the energy and transportation assets of these two organizations are a real bargain.
      The Geomatics industry in Canada will not find shelter from this northern wind either. Geomatics Canada, formerly the Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing Service (SMRSS) of Natural Resources Canada, will have their budgets cut by almost one third, from $95.1 million to $63.6 million, and over 200 jobs could be lost. According to Hugh O'Donnell, assistant deputy minister, Geomatics Canada will definitely emerge from this budget a very different organization.
      The trend of federal budget cuts is not exclusive to Canada. In the U.S., Newt Gingrich and the Republicans are also on a budget cutting spree. Some of their long-range plans to reduce the federal budget can have major impacts upon the GeoTechnologies industry.
      They plan to privatize parts of the National Weather Service and reduce spending for other parts of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This will result in a $1.2 billion savings.
      The restructuring of the Bureau of Mines, U.S. Geological Survey, and the Minerals Management Service will cut $1 billion from the deficit, and a 20 percent reduction for the National Agriculture and Interior by 5 percent to 10 percent and cut about $1.5 billion from the deficit.
      One thing we must keep in mind: The federal government cost cutting trend is on an irreversible path. We might as well get used to the fact that governments will continue to reduce their spending, and take economic measures that will increase tax revenues. Contracting-out, and letting the private sector perform tasks that have traditionally been performed by government go a long way towards that end.
      Another indication of this trend is illustrated by an analysis done by the Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS). They have found that the number of federal employees engaged in surveying and mapping is declining and the dollar value of contracts awarded to the private sector is increasing.
      MAPPS, a trade association for more than 100 private mapping, surveying and GIS service firms, began discussions with Congress, the White House and federal agencies about increasing contracting out in 1987. At that time, the federal government had 9,913 employees in six personnel categories for cartography, surveying and geodesy at the professional and technician level. The total dollar value of contracts for surveying and mapping related services was just 40.9 million, or 4.1 percent of the $1 billion the Office of Management and Budget estimates as the annual federal expenditure for surveying and mapping.
      At the conclusion of fiscal year 1994, the federal surveying and mapping workforce had fallen to 7,045 and contracting had increased to 84.7 million or 8.5 percent.
      "The fact that we have doubled the amount of contracts and reduced the government's in-house workforce by one-third is a good start, but it only scratches the surface. The agencies have only begun to recognize the fact that these services can be obtained at higher quality and lower overall cost to the taxpayer by contracting to the private sector," according to MAPPS Executive Director John M. Palatiello.
      "MAPPS has consistently held the view that there is a legitimate federal role in surveying and mapping-setting standards, coordination, defining requirements, research and development, contract administration, information dissemination, and limited production (to keep employees' skills current and to monitor contractor work)- but the government does not need to duplicate and compete with private sector capabilities in data collection and production services," Palatiello added.
      More and more, we will see in the future that private industry will pick up the chore of mapping, and providing geographic and spatial information to society. It just will not be economically viable to expect government to provide this service to society. The winds of change can have a biting cold edge, and as government painfully extricates itself from the mapping business, countless opportunities will present themselves to private industry. However, the onus is on industry to turn change into the winds of fortune.

Roland Mangold
publisher

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