Three outstanding attitudes — obliviousness to the growing disaffection of constituents, primacy of self-aggrandizement, [and the] illusion of invulnerable status — are persistent aspects of folly. — Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly

Gordon Campbell lies to even more people

So begins Vancouver Sun columnist Stephen Hume’s April 24th column in The Observer section of the paper.
In his surprisingly hard-hitting column (this is the generally toadying Vancouver Sun, after all), Hume takes the Liberals to task for “millions wasted on a treaty referendum that accomplished nothing, millions more frittered away reorganizing social services ministries that have subsided into dysfunction and chaos, yet more millions blown to claw back a few paltry disability payments from welfare recipients, scores of millions squandered to buy back the same real estate the government unloaded in a fit of ideological pique with the previous government two years earlier.”
And, as Hume states, “that’s just for starters.” As The Vancouver Sun online is available only by subscription, VanRamblings has made Stephen Hume’s column available here, or by clicking on the link below.

Liberals’ progress to date looks like a march to folly
Stephen Hume
Vancouver Sun

Three outstanding attitudes — obliviousness to the growing disaffection of constituents, primacy of self-aggrandizement, [and the] illusion of invulnerable status — are persistent aspects of folly. — The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

B.C. Liberal rhetoric in the run-up to a landslide victory was all about visionary leadership, crisp management, political integrity and fiscal responsibility. So, as we enter the final year of the government’s mandate, it seems only fair to consider these points, all the while keeping the eminent historian’s advice in mind.
Let’s see: Millions wasted on a treaty referendum that accomplished nothing, millions more frittered away reorganizing social services ministries that have subsided into dysfunction and chaos, yet more millions blown to claw back a few paltry disability payments from welfare recipients, scores of millions squandered to buy back the same real estate the government unloaded in a fit of ideological pique with the previous government two years earlier.
That’s just for starters.
Next we have elementary schools closing their libraries for lack of funds while the premier poses with books and pontificates on the value of literacy, school districts frantically re-jigging instruction schedules into four-day weeks to save money at the same time governments are scrapping flex scheduling and four-day work weeks, and college students paying for anti-government radio ads to protest tuition fee increases.
We have secretive police raids on the offices of senior ministerial aides, an ignominious retreat from a Waterloo with voters over Coquihalla Highway tolls and now a bizarre, near-thousand-year BC Rail lease that looks like it’s about to be derailed by first nations who see it as an attempt to evade obligations to address their constitutionally-defined interests.
And now we learn that analysts from two top-drawer business schools at Carleton and Western Ontario have found that the workplace in the environment ministry has become toxic itself.
They reported that provincial employees responsible for the environment are stressed out, deeply demoralized and most of them now believe that politics, not science, sets their priorities.
In fact, only one in four employees believes science is what drives decision-making. Water, Land and Air Protection Minister Bill Barisoff bristled to Vancouver Sun legislature reporter Jim Beatty that they’re all wrong; of course staff decisions are based on science. This may be what he believes, but obviously there’s a yawning gap between what management and staff believe.
To be frank, if there’s a credibility gap, it’s management’s problem. Why would anybody believe what this government says about anything?
The government surrendered its right to be trusted when it tore up labour contracts after promising it wouldn’t; when it sold off BC Rail — okay, okay, it’s not a sale, it’s a millennium-long lease — after promising it wouldn’t; when it promised “a new era of higher paycheques” and then set about rolling back wages, et cetera.
Meanwhile, a West Coast Environmental Law report raises doubt about assurances that all is just tickety-boo when it comes to the government’s ability to monitor even routine compliance with stripped-down environmental regulations.
With memories still fresh regarding Walkerton, where contaminated municipal water made thousands ill following provincial cutbacks in Ontario that affected environmental monitoring, you’d think maintaining monitoring capacity might have high priority here in a province where most drinking water comes from surface runoff.
But under the Liberals, the budget for the ministry that’s responsible for water protection has been hacked by 30 per cent and its staff chopped by almost 400, the report says. The majority of cuts — better than 90 per cent — occurred among science and enforcement staff and their office and technical support.
West Coast Environmental Law argues that five deeply troubling developments have since emerged on the Liberal watch.
First, it says reductions in field inspections that began with the NDP under Glen Clark were dramatically accelerated by the Liberals.
Second, some industries are no longer to be inspected or even subjected to routine spot checks — pulp mills, for example, once got a minimum of four surprise visits from inspectors each year — to reduce the workload of surviving staff.
Third, remaining staff are now expected to monitor compliance and to enforce environmental protection laws over much vaster geographical areas than they previously did, which can only further compromise already declining efforts.
Fourth, deep cuts to clerical, technical and administrative support staff can only result in those responsible for monitoring and enforcement facing more paperwork, phone calls and filing that will compromise their ability to do proactive preventive work and shift their efforts to reacting to problems.
Fifth, significant cuts at headquarters affects offices that once coordinated provincewide initiatives, shifting the responsibility to regional offices already stressed by deep cuts.
In addition, deregulation and reductions in science staff will eliminate public servants from key areas affecting environmental and human health concerns, the report says. Logging plans won’t get adequate prior scrutiny by habitat and wildlife biologists. Environmental oversight of biodiversity objectives in forest planning will be at risk — for example, warnings from scientists about potential impacts upon rare or endangered species or ecosystems.
“When people directly involved in monitoring and enforcement such as conservation officers, scientific technical officers, biologists and others lose their jobs and are not replaced, it falls to remaining staff — often in more distant offices — to assume greater responsibilities,” the report says.
However, it concludes that it is unlikely those added responsibilities can be assumed by remaining staff because the time and expense required to travel greater distances is often prohibitive. In addition, more senior staff must now do work once done by support staff.
But to get back to that government-commissioned report on the environment ministry. Barisoff simply pooh-poohed it. He told Beatty that staff in his ministry are motivated and working hard. And when a dozen environmental groups recently gave the government a failing grade on key stewardship issues, he said the criticism was unfair.
So, we have independent business analysts commissioned by the government warning that there are severe morale problems and that staffers don’t believe in the integrity of the decision-making process.
We have non-government organizations expressing concern about the ability of the ministry to do what it is supposed to do. We have the government saying there’s no problem.
Remember, this is the greenest province in Canada, in attitudes as well as scenery. A perception that environmental stewardship has been moved way down the political agenda will offend many.
Eons ago, when I was in business school studying advanced management methods, I remember my industrial relations prof — and he was no friend of unions — pointing out that whenever you discover a morale problem with employees serious enough to affect productivity, there is almost certainly an even more serious management problem.
The voters seem to be aware of this, even if cabinet ministers basking in the adulation of hopeful backbenchers are not. The latest poll shows the NDP ahead of the Liberals by one percentage point.
More tellingly, disapproval of Campbell’s leadership was expressed by more than six out of 10 respondents — which is why I began this column with that quote from Barbara Tuchman’s The March of Folly.
E-mail to: Stephen Hume
© The Vancouver Sun 2004

Raymond Tomlin

Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology.

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