Explained: How the Harper government put spending on ice – Macleans.ca

2014/12/13 Leave a comment

Department  Authorities for 2014-15 ($millions) Year-to-date (first six months) spending at September 30, 2014 ($millions) % of authorities spent
Agriculture and Agri-food $365 $48 13.2%
Employment and Social Development $1,702 $680 40.0%
Environment $107 $29 27.1%
Fisheries and Oceans $58 $25 43.1%
Health $1,683 $1,047 62.2%
Natural Resources $444 $99 22.3%
Transport $758 $42 5.5%
Veterans’ Affairs $2.7 $1.3 48.1%

Good piece by Jennifer Robson on the various ways to reduce spending:

So, if you’re in government and want to restrain your own spending, another way to do it is to just make it harder to move money out the door.  There are a lot of small but incrementally effective ways to do this.  Some of us use tricks to stop ourselves from spending.  For example, when my mother grew alarmed by her credit card bill, she would put her card in a block of ice in the kitchen freezer.  Really.  I’m not making this up.

The ways:

  1. Increase complexity of Treasury Board processes and requirements;
  2. Limit “March Madness” spending;
  3. Tie executive bonuses to managing spending (good discipline in any case);
  4. Make staffing processes more lengthy and complex;
  5. Increase administrative burden on grants and contributions.

Even at the time when I left government in 2011, some of this was apparent and being implemented.

Explained: How the Harper government put spending on ice – Macleans.ca.

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Information commissioner pleads poverty, Tory MPs say raise fees

2014/12/06 Leave a comment

The debate over Access to Info fees:

But Legault said charging fees is contrary to the governments touted open government policy, which calls for free access to government information, such as the 200,000 data sets it has now posted online.

She also said it often costs the government more to process fees than they are worth, and that any two-tier or three-tier fee system would simply add complications to the system. It would also require public servants to inquire about the motivation of requesters and the use to which they would put the information, both anathema to modern freedom of information principles.

Conservative MP Joan Crockatt asked Legault to be more open-minded about how fees might help solve the budget crunch. “The solution is in plain sight,” she said, referring to higher fees. “You have a garden growing outside your window.… You can look at cuts or grow your pie.”

Money from access to information fees currently goes into general revenues, not to the information commissioners office, and there is no fee charged to file a complaint with Legault’s office. She recently reported to Parliament that she no longer has any room to manoeuvre in her budget, and that a simple computer-server failure could halt operations for lack of funds to replace it.

I do not have a problem with a doubling of fees and indexing them to inflation (i.e., from $5 to $10).

But given that fees go into general revenues, not the Information Commissioner, this would have to be matched with an increase in her budget.

With hopefully more fulsome government compliance …

Information commissioner pleads poverty, Tory MPs say raise fees – Politics – CBC News.

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A star like Jason Kenney should avoid the gutter – Martin

2014/12/03 1 Comment

Every now and then, it happens.

But a sharp contrast when he was the only Cabinet Minister to state that Rob Ford should resign (Rob Ford should ‘step aside,’ Conservative Jason Kenney says):

What was particularly noteworthy this time was the involvement of Employment Minister Jason Kenney. He’s the party’s star. He’s touted as the inside favourite to succeed Mr. Harper. He gets a lot of votes, including mine, for most effective cabinet minister. He has more mental equipment one envious Tory calls him “Smarty Pants” than anyone on the Tory front benches.

On the question of ethics, you might think he would want to nurture an upright and honourable image in contrast to many in his party. Unlike other Tories, he’s got enough clout to tell the toadies in the Prime Minister’s Office what they can do with their talking points.

So what did he do last week? He jumped into the gutter with both feet. He showed himself to be all-in with the bottom-feeders.

My earlier tweet brought a flurry of tweets of those suffering from the “Harper/Kenney derangement syndrome” rather than more measured criticism.

A star like Jason Kenney should avoid the gutter – The Globe and Mail.

And the earlier Globe editorial:

 Conservatives’ dirty tricks have no place in Canadian politics 

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What open government hides | Geist

2014/12/03 Leave a comment

Michael Geist on the contradiction between the ‘Open Government’ initiative and the its inaction on ATIP compliance and reform and aversion to serious consultations:

There is much to like about Canada’s open government efforts, which have centred on three pillars: open data, open information, and open dialogue. Given the promise of “greater transparency and accountability, increased citizen engagement, and driving innovation and economic opportunity,” few would criticize the aspirational goals of Canada’s open government efforts. Yet scratch the below the surface of new open data sets and public consultations and it becomes apparent that there is much that open government hides.

The federal efforts around open data have shown significant progress in recent years. What started as a few pilot projects with relatively obscure data has grown dramatically with over 200,000 government data sets now openly available for use without the need for payment or permission. Moreover, the government has addressed concerns with its open government licence, removing some of the initial restrictions that unnecessarily hamstrung early efforts.

However, the enthusiasm for open data has not been matched with reforms to the access to information system. Despite government claims of openness and transparency, all government data is not equal. There is a significant difference between posting mapping data and making available internal information on policy decisions that should be released under access to information rules.

Indeed, while the government has invested in making open data sets available, it has failed to provide the necessary resources to the access to information system. The information commissioner of Canada has warned that inadequate financing has made it virtually impossible to meet demand and respond to complaints. Regular users of the access to information system invariably encounter long delays, aggressive use of exceptions to redact important information, significant costs, and inconsistent implementation of technology to provide more efficient and cost-effective service.

In short, the access to information system is broken. An open government plan that only addresses the information that government wants to make available, rather than all of the information to which the public is entitled, is not an open plan.

What open government hides | hilltimes.com.

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Think tank names Supreme Court of Canada ‘policy-maker of the year’

2014/11/28 1 Comment

Interesting comments coming from Benjamin Perrin, former legal adviser in PMO:

Mr. Perrin said the government’s biggest concern from its year of overwhelming defeats will be that its agenda is grinding to a halt. If that agenda “continues to be unravelled by the courts, it’s actually not governing the way that it wants to. It’s also politically quite embarrassing, and if people begin to think that the government is not understanding what the law is, and it’s not able to govern effectively, that becomes a very serious concern.”

Clarissa Lamb, a justice department spokesperson, defended the government’s record in court cases. “The federal government is involved in over 50,000 litigation cases every year. Our government is proud of our litigation record.”

The report sheds some light, if indirectly, on Prime Minister Harper’s decision last spring to accuse Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin of inappropriate conduct. Mr. Perrin called the Prime Minister’s decision to engage in a public dispute with the Chief Justice “a symptom of the frustration that’s likely setting in.” The International Commission of Jurists criticized Mr. Harper over the accusation, which it found baseless.

Chief Justice McLachlin was the sole author of four of the 10 rulings, and wrote opinions in two more.

Mr. Perrin suggests the problem might lie in the quality of legal advice from the justice department or whether the government is heeding that advice. The government might consider retaining “eminent outside counsel” to argue some cases, he said. Until an internal review is done of its litigation strategy, it would be premature to conclude the losing streak is caused by a “fundamental rift in values between the federal government and the court,” the report said.

As Justice legal opinions are protected by ATIP, we will never know the degree to which the problem is the legal opinion or political willingness to accept it.

Perrin, given his experience in PMO, should have been able to provide some insights on where the ‘blame’ lies.

Not convinced that hiring outside counsel will improve things if the government is not willing to listen.

Think tank names Supreme Court of Canada ‘policy-maker of the year’ – The Globe and Mail.

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‘Death by a Thousand Cuts:’ Memo to PM questions across the board budget cuts

2014/11/27 Leave a comment

Reassuring to know that PCO is doing its job and bringing these studies to the PM’s attention.

Last line is priceless and applies to the Canadian context and Government approach:

In a Jan. 27 memorandum to the prime minister, obtained under the Access to Information Act, the Clerk of the Privy Council briefed Stephen Harper on how austerity measures were being assessed in Australia.

“The authors found that prolonged cuts of this nature result in a loss of workforce capability, public sector productivity and innovation, and trust and confidence in public sector institutions,” states the memo.

The memo details how public trust is undermined “as programs become less efficient and effective in the wake of across-the-board cuts, and as mistakes and oversights occur.”

The study recommends that a better way to trim costs is by using efficiency audits of departments and by engaging staff to find effective and efficient new ways of delivering programs and services.

As the memo summarizes the Australian study, “skills shortages are having a significant impact on government operations, resulting in higher costs for recruitment and training over time, the appointment of more expensive private sector contractors for information technology, and diminished procurement expertise.”

Large portions of the four-page memo are blacked out.

The Prime Minister’s Office says it receives many memos and would not comment on the views in the Australian study.

“I will say that our government is proud of the steps we have taken to trim the size of government bureaucracy and ensure that tax dollars are being spent on programs and services that benefit Canadians,” spokesman Jason MacDonald said in an email.

….The study, based on austerity measures taken by national and regional governments in Australia, notes that politicians habitually claim cuts will be efficient and painless.

“In practice, however, claims that administrative budgets can be cut without affecting services are likely to be made only by politicians who have evaded explicit and responsible government decision-making, or want to evade it, or who are prepared to re-define services in order to evade it.”

‘Death by a Thousand Cuts:’ Memo to PM questions across the board budget cuts (pay wall)

And, in perhaps a concrete illustration of this, the Auditor General’s report on the sad state of Library and Archives Canada:

The Ottawa-based institution is supposed to collect and preserve government documents, photos, films, artworks and other materials of historical value and make them available for public use.

“Overall, we found that Library and Archives Canada was not acquiring all the archival records it should from federal institutions,” the report says.

The acquisition of federal records is governed by directives issued to departments and agencies, but some are out of date because they do not account for the records of new programs or changes to existing ones.

Since 2009, Library and Archives Canada was able to update the directives for just 30 of 195 federal agencies, meaning it could not ensure it was acquiring all retired records of archival value. As a result many records were stuck in limbo, awaiting Library and Archives’ decision as to whether they should be saved or destroyed.

Some of the 98,000 boxes of records in the backlog have been there for several decades. The auditor found the backlog had grown over the years and there was no approved plan to eliminate it despite allocation of $600,000 this year to tackle part of the problem.

Researchers for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission told the auditors the uneven quality of archival finding aids meant missing descriptions of box contents, as well as inaccurate or incomplete listings.

Library and Archives says digital records will represent the “format of choice” by 2017. However, there was no overall corporate strategy for the preservation of digital data, the report says.

The institution spent $15.4 million developing a trusted digital repository for records, but due to a change in approach it was never used.

Auditor General: Archives sitting on mountain of unsorted documents

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Public servants asked to promote Conservative tax plan on Twitter

2014/11/24 1 Comment

Totally inappropriate:

A senior bureaucrat with the Finance department sent out a mass email across government asking organizations to retweet messages about the announcement using the hashtag #StrongFamilies.

“We ask that your organization re-tweet the Department of Finance tweets from @financecanada on the announcement over the following 72 hours,” wrote Jean-Michel Catta, an assistant deputy minister.

“Most of our tweets will contain the hashtags #StrongFamilies ou #Famillesfortes.”

The proposal, which includes income splitting for families with children under 18 and extending the monthly Universal Child Care Benefit to more taxpayers, has not yet received parliamentary approval.

Public servants asked to promote Conservative tax plan on Twitter.

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Cohen: A cheap and small-minded museum plan

2014/11/22 Leave a comment

Andrew Cohen on the parochial nature of Ottawa. All too true:

John Baird, the minister responsible for Ottawa, who speaks of its “treasured” institutions, sees the capital much as he does our historic diplomatic residences abroad, which the government is selling. Too expensive. Too extravagant.

Recently, Baird went to Washington with Mark Kristmanson, the new head of the National Capital Commission. Kristmanson is smart, innovative and full of terrific ideas, one of which is to illuminate Ottawa in a symphony of light.

If Baird looked around Washington, he would have seen how to remake a great capital where museums matter.In the last 15 years, Washington has renovated the American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. It has built the National Museum of the American Indian and is building the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. It is re-imagining The Castle of the Smithsonian Institution.

But don’t stop there. Look at Baltimore, restoring its Museum of Art on its 100th anniversary. Or bankrupt Detroit, where they have saved the Detroit Institute of Arts. Or, Tacoma, Washington, where the art museum has been expanded.

Look at London, Paris, Tokyo, Rome and Berlin, where the German government, in particular, has sunk millions into a multi-year campaign to restore the treasures of Museum Island.

Ottawa? That would be presumptuous.

Cohen: A cheap and small-minded museum plan | Ottawa Citizen.

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EI rate cut: Ottawa skipped internal study in favour of interest group report

2014/11/21 Leave a comment

One sometimes wonder how Minister’s can say such things with a straight face, or whether they have any appreciation for more comprehensive analysis of policy options.

It is one thing to make a policy choice where political and other priorities play a role, but relying on the analysis of one interest group without a more independent assessment (that’s the public service role) is irresponsible.

No policy change should be done without such analysis. Abdication of Ministerial role.

And of course, the Government would not implement a policy suggestion from those on the left without conducting serious analysis:

Joe Oliver told the parliamentary finance committee that Ottawas decision to introduce the measure was based on the research of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

“The department does not analyze every measure that we introduce,” Oliver told the hearing as he responded to a question.

“If we don’t do it, we look to those who have expertise and we did in this case to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.”

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business estimated the credit would generate 25,000 person-years of employment over the next several years.

A job that employs a worker for one year amounts to one “person-year.”

But Canada’s parliamentary budget office has argued the credit will create only 800 net new jobs in 2015-16, while a freeze in employment insurance premiums could cost the economy 10,000 jobs over the same period.

The budget watchdogs study said that overall, the credit would create about 1,000 “person-years” of employment with a price tag of $555,000 for each person-year.

EI rate cut: Ottawa skipped internal study in favour of interest group report – Politics – CBC News.

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Canadians love their libraries but report urges new chapter

2014/11/14 Leave a comment

More on the ongoing decline of Library and Archives Canada and the cumulative effect of budget cutbacks in the Royal Society of Canada report on libraries:

The society panel spoke with dozens of librarians, archivists, students, seniors, new Canadians, and library users young and older, said Demers during a conference call Wednesday.

But the decline of LAC, which has suffered widespread budget cuts and staff reductions, was a major concern for Canadians across the board, she said.

“LAC is our national institution mandated by act of 2004 to acquire and preserve our documentary heritage and make it known to and available to Canadians,” she said. “There has been a decade-long decline in all the services at LAC.”

The panel heard from “disappointed professional” LAC users, including Governor General’s Literary Award winning author Jane Urquhart who gave it a collection of papers but has since been told she can’t have access to them.

… (Between 2009-12, the federal government cut 445 of its library jobs, mostly at LAC and the National Research Council’s science library).

Canadians love their libraries but report urges new chapter | Ottawa Citizen.

Ironic, that a Government that promoted Canadian history in its citizenship guide, Discover Canada, appears to be enabling Canadians to forget it.

For a thoughtful discussion on the importance of reading and books, CBC’s The Current did an excellent interview with Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran (great book from both a literary criticism point of view as well as the context of post-Revolution Iran):

http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/current_20141112_30305.mp3

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