Eyes wide shut in Ottawa

Is it smog clouding Parliament Hill in Ottawa? Because reading the headlines of the last few days, it seems that no one in the government is seeing clearly.

As much on the question of the interference of China in our democracy as on the transfer of the murderer Paul Bernardo, the ministers responsible for the files saw nothing of the warnings which they were nevertheless provided with.

Two explosive files. Two ministers who had their eyes wide closed, to use the title of Stanley Kubrick’s film.

Let’s first talk about the current Minister of Public Security, Marco Mendicino. On Tuesday, CBC News revealed that the Correctional Service of Canada gave its cabinet three months notice of the transfer of Paul Bernardo, whose heinous sex crimes have traumatized the whole of Canada.

But the minister swears that he only learned the day after the transfer, on May 30, that the murderer had been moved from a maximum security prison to the medium security institution of La Macaza, in Quebec.

It’s still incredible that his staff did not see fit to warn him sooner. But, as the saying goes, he is no worse blind than he who wants to see nothing.

Let’s move on to former Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, who also seems to have fog in his glasses.

On Tuesday, the big boss of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service certified before a parliamentary committee that he had sent, as early as May 2021, a note to specifically warn the minister that the Conservative MP Michael Chong was the target of intimidation on the part of of China whose policies he had criticized.

Strangely, Minister Bill Blair never saw the memo.

Here again, whose fault is it? To the bureaucracy that drops sensitive information between two chairs? Or to the minister who keeps his eyes closed on sensitive issues?

In any case, the proof is made that the left hand does not know what the right hand does, which bogs down the bureaucracy in Ottawa.

Week after week, the federal public service provides us with new examples of its carelessness. Judge for yourself…

On Monday, the historic resignation of Supreme Court Justice Russell Brown – another issue where Canadians deserve to see more clearly – put the dirty mechanics of the judicial appointment process back on the agenda.

The situation is so serious that Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner complained in writing to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last May.

There is a shortage of about 80 judges out of about 1200 in the federal courts. Several courts across the country are running with 10 or 15 percent vacancies, as positions sometimes take more than a year to be filled.

All of this has a major impact on the justice system in the country, by lengthening delays, which risks aborting trials. The government’s inertia is inexcusable, because there is no shortage of candidates to become judges. Please, a little speed.

Ottawa’s slowness also overwhelms the tourism industry. Thousands of participants in a medical congress in Montreal had to cancel their presence, our colleague Suzanne Colpron reported on Wednesday.

Obtaining the visa that visitors from some 150 countries need to enter Canada takes a crazy amount of time: 332 days for Senegal, 737 days for Nigeria, 914 days for Antigua and Barbuda…

How can we let people hang around for two and a half years? These unacceptable delays give the impression that the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has been swimming in peas puree for years.

But that’s not all.

According to an analysis of Toronto Star broadcast on Thursday, the federal government is also behind in its promises to fight climate change.

Since coming to power in 2015, the Liberals have promised to deploy $200 billion by 2035. But there is a world between these beautiful announcements and reality. Between 2016-2017 and 2021-2022, nearly 8 billion promised were not spent or were spent later than planned.

This raises a crucial question: with a bureaucracy moving at a snail’s pace, will Canada be able to meet its GHG reduction targets?

Granted, COVID-19 may have slowed the pace… but it’s starting to have a broad back among public servants whose emails are still careful to explain, three years after the start of the pandemic, the impact of COVID -19 on service delivery.

Basically, there is something gripping about Ottawa. Some will say that it is because of the excessive centralization of decisions in the Prime Minister’s office. Others will say it’s because government is still in the digital stone age.

One thing is certain, it is not by remaining with our eyes wide closed that we will get the bureaucracy going again and that we will deliver the services and commitments that Canadians expect.