HineSight – February 2010
Fall River(D2N) – Seems like every time we view the news, catch the radio version, or read the renderings of the print media , we see the words probe, study, report or review, accompanied by words such as feasibility, public, and staff, to define the actions – actions requested by elected representatives and special interest groups.
Bear in mind there are exceptions to every rule, however, in most cases someone is either buying time, covering up for inability to formulate their own opinion, looking for a support to begin a legal action, or trying to appear to be acting on behalf of others. Posturing for personal gain would aptly describe such actions.
Examples from today’s local news sources are; Herald headlines, “NDP wants probe of sports violence”; “Municipal staff have been directed to prepare a report on private roads.” And the list goes on. Anyone want to guess how much either of the above requests would cost? What will be done with the information that would be gained from the exercise? Who would really give a
shit about the results, because the reports would either be senseless – in the case of the sports study – or would be a repeat of the information obtained the last time the private road study was done.
The only benefit either study and most studies/reports that are commissioned would have, is satisfaction that people would see on the news that something had been done by their elected official. Oh yes, and the consultants and researchers would get a hefty sum for, in most cases, a useless exercise and waste of my and your money.
A good example is the money wasted to look into protecting terrorists from the Afghan police, who have targeted, and in many cases killed or wounded, our FREEDOM FIGHTERS; but then again, the Liberals and NDP would like a full blown investigation and report performed. And what for? To make them look like they are working hard – spending money on another report to collect dust in the library in Ottawa .
I guess all these worthless reports that you and I pay for to gather dust, provides great research material for the next time someone commissions another senseless request.
Gary
Politicians are adept at tactics used to delay any decision making that might cost them a vote. Besides studies they also use the, “We should have a meeting.” line or the, “You should start a letter writing campaign,” to slow down the process.
I’ll give you a classic example which was almost laughable in how it played out I will relay the following story. One time a few years back there was a meeting at Beaver Bank Kinsac school with all the stakeholders about getting funding to repave the school parking lot. The MP, the MLA, the councillor and the school board member were all in attendance at the meeting.
At the end of it all one of the elected politicians suggested to the crowd that they should start a letter writing campaign. My thoughts were to whom. All the elected area politicans were at the meeting. They could get together without the help of letter from the crowd and come up with a solution was my thought. The letter writing campaign is just another name for “having a study.”
It would be a breath of fresh air if a group of politicians took a bold step and made a decision to actually help their constituents without having a study, having another meeting or waiting to get some letters. You make a great point about useless studies.
As an example of how taxpayers’ money can be wasted on studies I have reproduced a press release from February 5, 2001 about a real live study that might just fall into the type of study to which you refer in your article.
“FOR BROADCAST USE
A group of researchers is studying the health of Gaelic culture in Nova Scotia, and it wants to hear from people active in the Gaelic community.
Consultant Mike Kennedy and his research team are preparing an inventory of Gaelic events, resources and organizations.
Tourism and Culture Minister Rodney MacDonald, whose department commissioned the study, says their findings will help Nova Scotia develop strategies to strengthen the presence of Gaelic language and cultural expression.
-30-
Contact: Peter Guildford
Tourism and Culture
902-424-4179 902-424-4179
E-mail: guildfpf@gov.ns.ca
kjd February 5, 2001 1:45 p.m.”
Gary,
You hit the nail on the head. Everytime there is an issue in HRM, I see that the method of moving forward is a study. I am baffled at the fact that we have elected leaders who are too afraid to make a decesion.We elected them to lead our communites forward and for the greater good of all.
Instead, they want to find what the study says and then are more worried about losing their seat so they do not make a decesion and nothing happens with the problem, or a new study is requested because they wasted so much damn time on doing something in the first place.