A complete lack of consultation
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball has forgotten one of the most elemental characteristics of a good leader, and this blatant flaw is leading to irreparable economic and social disaster in this province. Ball’s egregious failure? In the immortal words of the Prison Captain to Cool Hand Luke: failure to communicate.
This may sound strange given Ball can be heard regularly at pandemic press briefings, preaching about the latest urgent reason to hide our heads in the sand, or playing the role of benevolent king, doling out a few pennies to compensate his flock.
Ball has holed up with a few medical experts and administrators, and together they have decided that they alone know what is best for the province, and that they will command their people as they see fit. They have altered the Hippocratic Oath from “First, Do No Harm,” to seemingly “Let COVID-19 do no harm, directly, in my backyard, in the dying days of my reign, at any cost.”
But communication involves speaking and listening.
Throughout this crisis, there has been little or no consultation with the business community. There has been no meaningful consultation with business leaders, workers, chambers of commerce, boards of directors. Business operators have sound plans and responsible courses of action that can allow the economy to start moving, while implementing safety measures for workers and customers. Workers in this province want to get back to work. They don’t want handouts, which will have to be repaid through higher taxes in the future.
Thank goodness we have fishermen in this province. They are some of the hardest working men and women you will find anywhere. And fortunately, the federal government has declared fishermen essential workers. Furthermore, plant operators in this province have proven they know what they are doing, and have managed to create safe work environments.
In a telling moment at an early press briefing, a member of the COVID inner circle stated they needed a break before they switched from closure planning to business re-opening, because there were only eight of them, and they were working day and night. A medical team should not be planning business opening! Business operators need to be engaged. Ball and his team have fallen into the most basic trap in any team environment: Groupthink. The symptoms are all there — small group, like-minded people, no outside opinions, no rules for decision making. And the inevitable result is there too: narrow-minded decisions with terrible consequences.
There’s a second disaster brewing. There has also been no consultation with the families of elderly people, who are suffering terribly, abandoned and alone in seniors’ homes while the administration continues to ban relatives from visiting. Recent announcements had relatives celebrating that they would be allowed in to see their loved ones, only to find out that in some cases, it will be for one hour per week in a visitation room. They will not be allowed in daily to help care for their loved one and help relieve stress on essential workers.
If mortality statistics are consistent, more than 1,000 seniors will have died in this province due to age-related illness since the lockdown began. Many of them, alone. Most of these grandmothers and grandfathers will not have had a chance to say goodbye to loved ones. They will not get to hold a hand or receive a hug. They will face their final journey alone. This loss, and this suffering, will haunt us all for a long time to come.
Are they and their families casualties of this terrible virus, or might there have been a better way?
We will never know, because our provincial leaders have not consulted with family members to find a better way. They have not consulted with the business community. There has been no open dialogue. In hospitals, care homes and businesses, discussions are held behind closed doors, for fear of repercussions from authorities. And that is a clear sign of a broken regime.
Consultation is hard work. It requires actively seeking opinions that differ from your own. It requires admitting you don’t have all the answers, but maybe others do.
It’s time to listen. Chris Flanagan, CEO Baffin Fisheries St. John’s