Government Priorities

The Canadian government, just like any other government in the world is faced with the responsibility of providing services and facilitating easy access to these services for its citizens. However, sometimes the government is faced with such overwhelming demands for these services, bearing in mind the growing population on one hand and limited resources on the other. Among the services that a state's citizens expects the government to provide include employment, health services, social security, education, food security, environmental protection and financial protection against exploitation by the government itself through high taxes or by business people through hiked prices of goods and services (Paul 23).

Provision of all these services requires quite a chunk of financial investment. This is bearing in mind that the services need to be decentralized and not concentrated in one area of the country alone. Another factor to consider is the sustainability of the service being offered and the benefits; both long term and short term that the people will derive from the service both directly and indirectly. Bearing this is mind calls for prioritization of the services. In my view therefore, all the services mentioned above are vital and are basic rights of the citizens of any country, but we have to agree that a government must prioritize on which ones to provide first before the others in order to maximize benefits and at the same time boost development (Henry and Robert 45).

Provision of health services should be in the top list. This is because a healthy nation is a developing nation. When the citizens of any given nation are fit in body, mind and soul, it means that they are able to give their input in other sectors of the economy and hence keep the country growing. When the government is able to provide health care services and bring hospitals closer to the people, it means that even at the slightest attack of illness, a person will be treated and will continue to build the nation. The government has taken this further by going to the extent of providing insurance services through the Social Security Trust Fund to its citizens at affordable rates, hence ensuring that no one is unable to access a health facility for lack of funds. Some other insurance services packages that the government has come up with include Medicare, Tricare and Children, Health Insurance Program. Sadly however, research shows that much of health services are still privately owned and hence citizens are still being charged high prices for health services (Paul 28).

The next priority should be education. An informed nation is a powerful nation. Education plays a major role in development of a nation. It means that when people are educated, they are at a better position to acquire jobs. Once they have secured jobs, it in a way means that insecurity goes down because crime rates also reduce. Crime according to the word-net-web is an evil act, which violates people's rights and is hence punishable by law. It has also been defined by the Heritage Dictionary as an act done or failed to be done and consequently violates the law and hence calls for punishment if one if found guilty. Crime is in most cases fuelled by unemployment, meaning that most of the people you find carjacking, robbing, murdering and mugging people are those without stable sources of income. Education also plays a role in curbing unemployment. Educated people develop the mind for job creation, and hence instead of relying upon the government to provide jobs for them, people are able to create their own jobs and employ others. To prove just how important this aspect of education is, some governments have gone ahead and declared child education compulsory to ensure that nobody misses out on basic education (Henry, Charles and Gordon 34).

The third priority should be provision of security services.  This again touches and goes back to provision of education or training services. It is upon the government to see to it that the army, police force and military are well facilitated so that they are able to provide the services of protection to the nation. A country faced with war and terrorist attacks every now and then hardly has any room for growth because the citizens are always in the constant fear of being attacked. Such a country also suffers from investor-repulsion. This is because investors will never invest their money where there is danger of attack on their businesses by external enemies. Security is crucial in the growth and prosperity of any given nation (Henry, Charles and Gordon 56).

In conclusion therefore, all the services mentioned above are all important, but when the government is budgeting, I feel that these three should be given the top most consideration and with a lot of weight because when these three are in place then everything else will fall in place with relative much ease.