A new book,Harperland: The Politics of Control,byGlobe and Mailcolumnist Lawrence Martin, details the reach of the Stephen Harper government’s control over information.
Anyone working in Ottawa knows it all too well. News releases on topics as grand as global strategy or as mundane as turning cow manure into energy must be approved by a minister’s office and in most cases, the prime minister’s office or his bureaucracy, the Privy Council Office, before release.
Public servants who once were trusted to talk to journalists because they were presumed to know their files now must go through approval hoops to get permission to speak publicly and then with speaking notes approved from above.
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In more cases than not, the response from departments is to send an e-mail from ministers or departments rather than putting up a live person to talk about an issue. An e-mail statement does not allow follow up or challenging questions.
It makes for bland and usually non-informative communication from the government to its citizens. The decline in the quality and clarity of government communication has been ongoing for years, preceding Harper but perfected under his regime.
Agriculture Canada is typical.
News releases routinely tell the reader little about the context or detail of government actions. Sometimes, when read superficially, they actually misinform, announcing “investments” that are loans or trade access breakthroughs or support programs that aren’t what they seem.
But that is just a part of the problem with government communication.
This is a plea for government, if they must require ministerial or PCO approval for communication, also to require approval by a “clear language” commissioner who certifies that average people can understand what they are being told.
Government communication has become so weighed down by the pseudo-language of bureaucrats that it is a black hole from which intelligible information cannot escape.
Consider this response from Agriculture Canada to a House of Commons agriculture committee recommendation that the government review its scientific capacity and increase resources in the research branch to expand public research (note to editors: this is way longer than you normally would let a paragraph go):
“The Strategic Action Plan is evergreen and is revisited annually to make any necessary adjustments to ensure its continued relevance in the rapidly growing environment. In this way, (Agriculture Canada) is continually striving to ensure that we maximize our ability to support the sector both as a provider of science and innovation activities and also as a catalyst to focus and coordinate the activities of all science providers within the Canadian agri-science and innovation system.”
Just to make sure it is clear, the response assured us that “this is critical to ensure that all available capacity is maximized in a coordinated and efficient approach that best support the needs of the sector and Canadians.”
Why can’t our government communicate in ways people without a PhD in obtuse language understand? Never mind the much-discussed fog of war. The fog of government communication is as serious an issue.
