Governments overlook ‘for the people’ concept

U.S. president Abraham Lincoln said it best in the Gettysburg address: “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

The “of, by and for” concept has broad support among Canadians, no matter that it originated elsewhere.

Until it comes to governments. Service to the people is losing ground at all levels of government.

Let’s start with the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. It appears to be going nowhere. Launched last August, the inquiry has held only one public hearing and that was last week. Reports suggested a database of families and victims has not even been built.

The commission is not a direct branch of government. But it was formed by the feds who can prod it to get to work.

On the issue of “for the people,” auditor general Michael Ferguson says there is a government-wide lack of focus on Canadians.

If there’s a hill to climb in Ottawa in this regard, there’s a mountain range at Queen’s Park where bureaucratic careers seem to be made on the ability to ignore the people.

No one seems to care about the deep concerns around the $320-billion debt the province is accumulating; or the way in which this government split families and divided communities by running rough shod over local concerns about wind turbines.

School closures, ever-changing hospital funding formulas, growing bureaucracy with no accountability to the electorate, poor management of files, byelection scandals and more are on the list.

It used to be that governments that were closer to the people would be more responsive. Apparently that’s no longer the case, particularly when it comes to regional school boards.

In another example, the County of Grey that stretches from Georgian Bay to the Listowel area recently put the balance sheet, bureaucrats and admin mumbo-jumble ahead of people.

Forced to upgrade one of three county-run homes for seniors in Durham, the county has decided to sell off a perfectly good sister facility in Markdale to private enterprise. The plan is to build one new county home to serve the two communities and surrounding areas.

The plan might make sense from an office in the county building, which by the way is undergoing a $10-million expansion for bureaucrats. But it makes no sense to the people.

The two current homes are about 28 kilometres apart. However, the region served is broad and it’s not inconceivable that residents of the new home could come from 50 km away.

If a new resident has been married, perhaps for 50 or 60 years, it’s likely a spouse will want to visit. In fact, it’s not unusual for spouses to visit partners in such facilities every day.

With the new home, a senior driver would have to head out in some of the stormiest weather in southern Ontario during the winter.

That’s just one consideration from the people. There are many more that seem to have had little impact on a staff report that had council members mesmerized by numbers, matrices, etc. that make up modern bureaucratic butt covering.

Council also accepted a staff recommendation to hire management experts to run the county-owned homes.

Those who helped compile the report must be hoping they won’t be among those laid off when work is transferred to such an agency.

Because that’s how governments function right? Less work means fewer jobs.

Not.