Politicians, use your formal power
When they wake up in the morning, the first question every decision-maker at a government or public institution in Canada should be asking is: What can I do with the formal authority I have?
The second question: If I don’t have this authority, how can I get it? And the third question: If I can’t get the authority, how can I deliver what my constituents need regardless?
But too many authorities, especially with the province, aren’t even asking themselves the first question. Ontario has a majority government, the public’s attention, and public health units and officers that have either their own authorities, or the ability to influence provincial government decisions.
Even a year into the pandemic, the full weight of government authority, or prospective authority, has not been used.
“What can I do with the formal authority I have?” A lot, if it’s applied with urgency. Take three examples, where authorities are available but haven’t been used.
In long-term care, more throwing up of hands. Testimony this week by Ontario’s chief medical officer indicated that a lack of trained staff or alternative facilities prevented early action in the spring. Minister Merilee Fullerton won’t address the fundamental issues until the vaccine has solved the problem.
In public education, a woeful program of in-school testing. Minister Steven Lecce’s desire to have 5 per cent of schools doing asymptomatic testing weekly wouldn’t even get every student tested this school year.
In the vaccine rollout, inexplicable delays and confusion. The province announced, just this week that the online enrolment system would only be available starting March 15, and that each public health unit has to create its own plan.
The province, working with other institutions, is more than capable of acting quickly. It can, for example, purchase enough tests from the private marketplace and get them to the schools, congregate living settings and workplaces where they are needed the most.
It can be also be more aggressive in setting province-wide standards for vaccine eligibility, and in preparing for step two of the vaccination (scheduling them) while we finish step one (acquiring them).
If you don’t have authority, answering “How can I get the authority?” is easy. Ask for it. Go to the people, or the legislature, to get it. Courts have been deferential. If it’s important, spend the money: Even if the federal government can borrow more cheaply, Ontario is well able to go into further deficit for the priorities it deems important.
Or just acquiesce to good ideas others are putting forward. With fast-spreading new variants, and with 13,552 known COVID-19 cases in Ontario being contracted in the workplace, workers need more paid sick leave to protect themselves and their colleagues and families. Bill 239 isn’t perfect, but it does just that. The government could join opposition parties next week in supporting this bill.
And what if you are an opposition politician, without formal authority? A simple three-part formula can help distinguish a competing effort.
Purpose: Canadians still await the articulation of a clear purpose behind a clear plan, one that allows us to keep schools open and congregate living settings safe, while keeping people secure through income support.
Plan: The pandemic response plan that Joe Biden put forward during his campaign, for instance, was a more comprehensive one that the administration itself had. Voters at large didn’t need to read it, but they could rest assured that the hard work of developing it had been done.
People: Bring the right people around the problem, including those who have led organizations that deliver services. One example of an expert- and citizenled effort to use informal authority is the COVID Strategic Choices group, whose work helped inform a more robust federal border control plan.
The pandemic demands a singular focus on using power to competently deliver the services that we need. Our measure of who gets to lead our postpandemic recovery should be who has the competence, and the literacy around the use of power, to serve us. Karim Bardeesy is executive director of the Ryerson Leadership Lab at Ryerson University, and a former director of policy to Ontario premiers Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty.