Posts Tagged elected officials
The Harper Government Intention to Make the Long Form Census Voluntary
Posted by Henry McCandless in Authorities' Accountabilities on July 26, 2010
A Toronto Globe and Mail article 30 June 2010 attributed to The Canadian Press was headed: “Don’t Count on Census Detail: Tories Scrub Mandatory Long Form.” The article stated “The move (to make the long form voluntary) is a response to protests from some Canadians who resented the personal questions in the long form.”
The article centered on the executive government’s portrayal of the policy change, citing objections from “some Canadians” — the source presumably being the Ministry who could cherry-pick. A StatsCan official said, “We do acknowledge that (in making responses voluntary) that we may not get the same level of detail as that of a census.”
Insiders speaking to the Canadian Press on condition of anonymity “decry a new world order within the agency since the Conservatives came to power in 2006”, with commendable analyses being dropped and total information reduced for “dozens of provincial governments, community groups and other organizations that depend on the data for developing policy.” Said one StatsCan source: “It will be a disaster. A lot of policy across Canada has been based on that long form.” As well, the voluntary aspect, through bias in who answers and is saying what, can be expected to skew the results. Read the rest of this entry »
Municipal Accountability: a city council’s refusal to account
Posted by Henry McCandless in Accountability of Public Administration Academics, Authorities' Accountabilities, Governance Accountabilities on June 30, 2010
In the August 19 2009 edition of a Victoria BC local newspaper, the Oak Bay News, I had set out the problem of the mushrooming and unfettered deer population in Victoria and what I saw as the Oak Bay municipal council’s responsibility. In that op-ed I stated:
“If Council members say they can do nothing because removal (of the deer) is a provincial matter, they can be expected to meet with other municipal councillors, the deer-housing golf clubs and responsible provincial ministry and wildlife protection officials and come up with an effective action plan within four months. This would be exposed to the public for challenge and would include options such as removal or culling and the reasons for it. Oak Bay Council owes homeowners a public explanation of its intentions and reasons with respect to the deer.”
Seeing no public response from the council members, I wrote on April 16 2010 to each of the seven Oak Bay councillors specifically asking them to publicly explain to Oak Bay residents their action plan to deal with the problem.
My August 2009 op-ed, April 2010 letter to the Councillors and the response are set out below.
Public Trust Depends on Public Accountability
Without public trust in authorities, society doesn’t work properly.
The argument for requiring full and fair public explanation by authorities on how they are carrying out their responsibilities is straight-forward: If authorities are required to explain publicly, fully and fairly, before taking their decisions:
- what specific outcomes they intend to bring about, for whom, and why,
- the performance standards they intend for themselves and those they oversee,
their decision-making will be fairer for all those who would be significantly affected by their decisions.
This is because authorities’ explanations required before the fact can be publicly evaluated by knowledgeable organizations for their fairness and completeness. This public assessment will lead to greater or lower public trust in the authority. Thus the requirement for public explanation produces a self-regulating influence that increases decision fairness and raises valid citizen trust in the authority.
But it will take citizens themselves to bring about public accounting to a standard of explanation that citizens are entitled to see met. Since the obligation of authorities to give full and fair public accountings is unassailable, there is no barrier to citizens forming accountability groups on important issues and holding their elected representatives publicly to account for making the explanation requirement the law.
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