Hard problems, no easy solutions

Re: “Trent critiques Charbonneau report” and “Two whistleblowers’ takes on commission’s findings” (Montreal Gazette, Nov. 26)

Peter Trent’s and Ken Pereira’s criticisms of the Charbonneau Commission report are justified.

A central contract award authority would add even more bureaucracy when we’re under severe bureaucratic stress already, with our federal, provincial and municipal public servants — and occasional commissions that make costly reports (even though $45 million might be a small percentage of municipal contacts awarded).

Why not just encourage more competition — for snow removal, building roads, etc. — by advertising the opportunities more broadly and encouraging more entrepreneurs to bid? Let the market do the job.

As a Westmount resident, I certainly wouldn’t want a mayor like Trent to go because of three turns of service, if he’s still interested to serve. Even though I haven’t agreed with everything he’s done (the arena), Trent is doing a great job managing the city and keeping the budget under control, and we’d want to keep benefiting from his accumulated experience.

Education in ethics for professional orders? Will the students be required to pass an exam with tough questions on real-life situations? If not, it’s another costly “make work” idea. Former union executive Pereira hit the nail on the head when he said that in spite of the 1,741 pages, the unions were left pretty much unscathed in the report.

The sad reality is that when governments are faced with difficult problems, they set up costly commissions of inquiry that produce voluminous reports by non-specialists that often fail to address structural problems. Catharsis and real solutions remain elusive. Eugene Joseph, Westmount