It often is the little incidents that expose, or at least illustrate, the bigger
problems.
First, let’s identify the bigger problem with Agriculture Canada.
It is a huge bureaucracy undergoing a form of crisis. After three years of reorganizations, big ideas and grand schemes, the troops are demoralized, uncertain, confused.
Since deputy minister Samy Watson was sent over from Privy Council Office
April 10, 2000, to clean the joint up and to move agriculture “beyond crisis management” (translation – to get farmers off the government’s back for annual help), there has been a rush of ideas, much planning, development of the agricultural policy framework and many, many restructurings.
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There have been a dizzying number of consultations, reformations, personnel changes.
The middle management guard was changed. The department became forceful in telling farmers and the provinces what future policy would be.
Meanwhile, many longtime departmental employees have become embittered at what they see as a shift away from farmers as clients and toward agribusiness and the
bureaucratic process.
There has been an exodus of middle managers to other departments or out of government.
Watson is credited with being a brilliant “idea man,” but a manager with poor interpersonal skills and little interest in the details of how policies are implemented. Stories of his temper tantrums and verbal abuse of underlings are widespread in Ottawa.
So that is the big picture. In a department of thousands of employees, it is difficult to get excited about the overview.
That’s where the little things come into play. The malaise in the department was illustrated this month with two incidents that led to grumblings, telephone calls and e-mails from disgusted employees.
Item No. 1: Late last year, an Agriculture Canada manager approved $1,500 reimbursement for trade division management trainee Nicolas de Salaberry, who took a yoga teacher training course in Ottawa to help him deal with stress.
When the news got out through a disgruntled employee, the department first said it was a reasonable expenditure and later said it was a mistake.
The employee who leaked the story used sarcasm, presumably something that Watson does not appreciate.
“Can I assume that Mr. De Salaberry will go into a lotus position and levitate in Geneva?” he wrote. “(Agriculture Canada) under Samy Watson has become a bizarre department where common sense and intellectual integrity has disappeared.”
Item No. 2: Then came the Jan. 9 e-mail from Watson encouraging all Agriculture Canada employees to attend a one-day workshop on “creating a respectful workplace.”
“Each of us should be treated with respect and dignity and feel valued in our workplace,” wrote Watson.
A longtime agriculture department employee reacted like many.
“I hit delete,” she said. “What a crock. Of all the people to talk about respect in the workplace, he’s not it. It’s incredible.”
Meanwhile, the department carries on, trying to define the next generation of farm safety nets.
Is that scary?
