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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party could reach the pinnacle of prioritizing political marketing over governance in Ottawa.Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press
You might think that a program that sets aside 5 per cent of government contracts for Indigenous companies would be designed to have checks in place to ensure that the work is actually being carried out by Indigenous people. . But perhaps that is based on a mistaken conception of what the position of corporate government is.
This week, in another ugly spin-off from the ArriveCan file, the Globe and Mail's Bill Currie reported that since 2016, the government has been under contract (the majority of this set) under the Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Businesses. It reported that it conducted post-audits of contracts only four times. -Aside- He is required to confirm that 33% of the work was done by indigenous peoples.
All four audits were launched in the past two years, when the contract debacle surrounding ArriveCan raised many questions about Indigenous procurement strategies. Questions such as “Does this program do what I expect?”
The answer is, “The government doesn't know.”
Why don't we know that? Because the answer is beside the point. The government is not focused on results. This is an announcement job.
Number of companies listed as Indigenous soars as Ottawa adopts procurement targets
Three years ago, the Liberal government announced it would expand Indigenous arrangements so that 5 per cent of all federal contracts go to Indigenous businesses.
But all the gutting of the $59 million ArriveCan project has raised questions about how Indigenous savings will work.
One of the two-employee companies, called Dalian, has benefits that allow it to work for First Nations because founder David Yeo is the great-grandson of former Chief Robert Franklin of Alderville First Nation. received. Dalian does much of the work in a joint venture with a non-indigenous company called his Coradix. But until two years ago, the federal government had not audited whether 33 percent of Dalian's contract labor was actually performed by indigenous workers, as required by the program.
PSIB's reserves have increased fivefold in five years to $862 million. But the Indigenous Business Council of Canada warned that there could be “phantom joint ventures” in the program. And Ottawa doesn't really check.
Clearly, the current Liberal government deserves a great deal of blame. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party may have reached the pinnacle of prioritizing political marketing over governance in Ottawa.
But it didn't start with them. The indigenous arrangements date back to 1996, when Jean Chretien was prime minister. It has existed for 28 years and under four prime ministers from two political parties. In both cases, there was no need to set up a proper post-audit.
It's not like no one thought of it. Bureaucrats recognized that it was necessary. It's just that Chretien's Liberal government did not provide the budget for the audit. Necessary parts were removed to maintain the integrity of the entire program. A review of the program during Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's tenure found, you guessed it, that an audit was needed.
This isn't really a one-time thing. This reflects a capital where political marketing has taken a backseat to governance priorities. The current tendency among eccentrics to worry about the ability of public services to deliver programs may be partly a byproduct of a system created by political masters who believe that announcements are the deliverables. Politics is becoming increasingly distant from government. For now, there is little reason to believe that a Conservative government led by Pierre Poièvre will change this.
Early in his administration, Mr. Trudeau brought in Sir Michael Barber, a leading expert on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's achievements and author of the book “Deliveryology 101,'' to teach the old bureaucracy new tricks. It was widely seen as a temporary attempt to
Much of what Sir Michael emphasized is actually very simple, and it is very easy to understand why Prime Minister Trudeau's government abandoned it.
Sir Michael wanted the Government to clearly articulate and communicate to people what success meant for the initiative, rather than announcements. He suggested the government measure progress with data. And when things don't go as planned, make changes.
My enthusiasm for everything has disappeared. That's politically dangerous. Measuring data progress, or even auditing it, raises questions you don't want to answer. Admitting a mistake means, no way, admitting a mistake. None of that makes for good marketing.
