You may have seen posts here about my “win”, such as it is, with the Information Commissioner when it comes to DFAIT. Here’s the resulting column that went across our chain today …
Only in the odd, upside-down, un-reality world in which government bureaucrats live could the idea flourish that they are doing a better job by not doing their job at all.
But that is indeed the case at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) where officials charged with responding to requests made under the federal Access to Information (ATI) Act boasted that they had taken steps “to improve overall compliance” and “increase efficiency” by convincing dozens of Canadians to drop their requests for information.
They accomplished this marvellous task of doing a better job by convincing enough Canadians to cease asking them to do the job in the first place. They did this . . .[Read the rest of the piece: Common sense? From bureaucrats?.]
When it comes to government in business the more nothing they do the better! That sense may not be common but its hsitorically accurate! Take the CBC, Canada Post, or Air Canada for examples.
Back to ATI – the best solution to fixing a buracracy is to privatize the it – in part or in whole. According to a German analysist (interviewed on Sun News Netwiork this week) comparing Universal Health Care in Canada to the same system in Germany except Germany has allowed private care to compete with public care, the buracrats numbers are 10 times larger in our system (no privatization) than it is in Germany! Any the government can’t figure out why our system doesn’t work!?! Privatizing the Public Service isn’t so far-fetched anymore is it?