Just when we thought the F-35 Fiscal Fiasco had gone away…
Welcome to Fiscal Fiasco Round Two – and this time it’s really important, because we’re talking about ships. Earlier this spring the Canadian government announced that it was paying Irving Shipyards $288 million just to design the new Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) for the Royal Canadian Navy. Not build, just design. Click here for the CBC report on the announcement:
Now I’m a former naval officer, and I appreciate well-designed ships. I also have nearly a decade of experience working in private industry selling high-tech systems to the military (full disclosure: I don’t sell weapons) and I know well that complex engineering projects don’t just happen – they need to be designed first. But it’s not like Irving is taking their blue pencil to a completely blank drawing board: the government already paid $5 million for an existing design that was used to build an Arctic Patrol Vessel for the Norwegian Navy. Sure, we have to “Canadianize” it (for who knows what glaring errors those poor, benighted Norwegian designers might have made – it’s not like Norway ever builds ships or anything) but as the linked article reports, the design costs for other vessels similar to the AOPS cost no more than $20 million. So where does the $288 million go?
Just to reiterate: we’re not talking about doubling, or even tripling, the typical design cost. We’re talking about fourteen times the amount.
Being a political moderate who leans more to the right than the left when it comes to government philosophy, my gut instinct is to shrug and say something like, “Oh well, there must be a reason – these things are complicated and I’m sure the media is exaggerating a bit.” But beyond the extraordinary gulf between 20 and 288, what really bugged me about this was the fact that, when questioned by reporters, neither government minister at the podium could give a clear answer. It was waffle-waffle-this and waffle-waffle-that. The closest I know of to an actual answer was offered by Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose (quoted from the linked article):
“We are implementing what’s called a design and then build strategy,” the minister told CBC News. “What that means is that we are spending more money up front on the design and production phase. That’s important because we want to make sure that the shipyards, and the navy, and the coast guard, get the design correct.”
Okay, so we’re spending more up front. On what? What? Tell us, Rona! What on Earth costs $288 million before a single rivet is driven into a hull plate? There must be an answer, so why is it so hard to lay it out? According to the article, the journalists were cut off by government “media handlers” before too long and the politicians were whisked away. Why? This is a pretty obvious question that should have a pretty obvious answer. Are we paying for training? For consultants? For trips to Norway to ride on their ice-breaker and see if we like it? What? All of a sudden, I’m suspicious.
We have an election underway here in British Columbia, so I offer this bit of advice to everyone who will be elected to the new legislature: know your stuff, and give straight answers – even if they’re unpleasant answers. The vast majority of Canadians would rather hear an unpleasant but complete truth than a waffly and opaque “key message”. To the soon-to-be politicians in my province, please learn from Fiasco Round Two at the Federal level and remember what it was like when you were just a citizen. If you tell the truth, you’re always going to make somebody unhappy. But if you dodge and weave and ultimately say nothing, you’re always going to make everyone unhappy.
Photo Credits
AOPS rendering copyright Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada
Mackay & Ambrose photo copyright the Calgary Herald
Recent Bennett R. Coles Articles:
- A No-BS Tour of Modern Publishing Part 4 – The traditional industry: the bookstores (and distributors)
- A No-BS Tour of Modern Publishing Part III – The Traditional Industry: The Publishers
- A No-BS Tour of Modern Publishing Part II – Making sense of the lingo
- A No-BS Tour of Modern Publishing Part I – Author Motivations
- Star Wars: The Next Generation
Bennett R. Coles says
Colin,
Thanks for your comment. I agree that mistrust is self-fulfilling: if you treat people as if they don’t trust you, they will prove you right, no matter what position they started in. I like the fact that you referred to Hobbes’ ‘Leviathan’ – I think he painted a vivid picture in his writing and I even used one of his more famous quotes to start one of my novels:
“Force, and fraud, are in war the two cardinal virtues.”
Let’s hope our Government never considers itself at war with its people.
Colin Mallard says
Being a political moderate myself, I find what Bennet Coles has pointed to in his blog (Welcome to Fiscal Fiasco Round Two) disturbing but, not unexpected for most Canadians.
The Harper government has demonstrated time after time that it is more interested in the illusion of integrity than the reality. It would appear that it has come to the conclusion that Canadians who don’t agree with them are dumb, and can’t be trusted with such weighty decisions concerning government expenditure.
One thing is axiomatic: Those who do not trust cannot be trusted, and this government has demonstrated over and over again, that it does not trust the integrity and judgment of its people.
What’s more disturbing about the Harper government’s actions, however, is that they seem to have accurately assessed the situation. Sadly, we are as dumb as they think we are.
As long as we continue looking the other way, and pretending they are honest and have our best interests at heart, we are deluding ourselves.
Abraham Lincoln pointed out, “In a democracy we get what we deserve,” after all, democracies are government of the people by the people, for the people.
Harper is sharp, Machiavellian even. He understands “good” government is dependent on an informed and educated electorate. By not trusting people, by spinning his illusions and lies, not answering questions—keeping us ignorant!—he can do what he wants.
This government and fundamentalists in general, are so convinced they are right they think the ends justify the means.
Harper’s government has consistently demonstrated it is not subject to the same laws that govern its people—As evidenced again by today’s Senate and robo call scandals—This government considers itself above the law.
The reasoning for this behavior can be found in the thinking of the Scottish philosopher Thomas Hobbes in his book, “Leviathan,” published in 1851. Here he argues that to have and maintain civil order people cannot expect the laws that apply to them to apply to government.
He argues that human beings are by nature, greedy, hostile and aggressive, and left to their own devices are soon at war with one another. Therefore government has an obligation—in the interest of the well being of society, to exercise its power; to pass and enforce laws that government itself is not subject to.
Hobbes is right in many ways. Left to our own devices we are soon at war with one another. But what is the underlying cause of this. Is it not the idea that I can take what I want, when I want, no matter the cost to others; it is mine by divine right, simply for being born.
Modern advertising is brazen on this matter, telling all who will listen: “It’s your right, now go out and get it.” This kind of thinking feeds our propensity for greed and selfishness instead of our propensity for generosity, honesty and kindness.
Hope lies in human nature as well. To abuse people’s trust and expect trust in return demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of how we are as human beings and this failure will eventually put an end to this Government.
Colin Mallard, author of “Stillpoint a novel of war and peace.”