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A Crown Corporation Out of Control
By
Bob Orrick
Recently, in British Columbia, bureaucracy has reared its ugly head and in so doing has highlighted why bureaucrats, a part of a central administration that ought to assist people, have gone mad with power.
According to the Gage Canadian Dictionary bureaucracy is defined as "government by groups of officials" and "an excessive concentration of power in administrative offices" and "excessive insistence on rigid routine, red tape." The Oxford English Reference Dictionary states bureaucracy as being "a government by central administration." The Oxford adds, "the officials of such a government, especially regarded as oppressive and inflexible." Both dictionaries' definitions fit what most people think of when they think of bureaucracy and bureaucrats.
During my years as a print medium reporter and later editor and during my years as a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, I learned that bureaucrats tend to protect that part of their body that sees little light. Bureaucrats are past masters at passing the buck so as not to be held responsible for an action or inaction; also, they are pretty good at interpreting government fiats to suit their own particular bent. My wife of half-a-century defines bureaucrats as "little men trying to be big men."
The case in point concerns BC's Insurance Corporation of British Columbia [ICBC] at one time referred to somewhat derogatorily as Icky Bicky. Today, ICBC is in the news for what most would consider bureaucratic foolishness.
During the previous government's mandate of mismanagement, a decade of downturn in the province, the NDP was raked over the coals by the Liberal opposition for the government's attempts to impose ICBC accreditation programmes on the province's glass-and-body-shops. Two such programmes were designed to regulate the amount of toilet paper and hand soap in washrooms and shop paint colours. The Liberal critic said, "I don't believe ICBC is even remotely in touch with what the public actually care about in British Columbia. It's a Crown corporation out of control." The speaker of those words was Geoff Plant, currently the province's attorney general. Now the shoe is on the other foot and the Liberals are taking heat for what can only be described as "A Crown corporation out of control."
To illustrate how out of control this monopolistic monster is, we travel to the small village of Barriere located a few miles north of Kamloops on the Yellowhead Route. There, an auto body shop owner found out first hand how far-reaching Icky Bicky's tentacles are. From reports carried in the province's primary daily newspapers, the shop owner lost his accreditation for the simple reason of purchasing an advertisement in the Barriere telephone book. The phone book was circulated to 300 Barriere residents. The shop owner fell out of favour when ICBC snoops learned that he had used the Glass Express logo in the ad. According to that infamous fine print, to do so is to bring the wrath of ICBC down upon the head of the unsuspecting ad-placer. The shop owner is allowed to use the logo on his truck and on his shop front window but not in an advertisement in the local phone book. As the youngsters are fond of saying, "Go figure."
For his most heinous crime, and to be certified, the poor shop owner had to close up his shop for nearly two days, travel to Vancouver, learn a new computer system and write a test to prove he and his employee are glass technicians. The shop owner has been in the business for thirty-five years and has but one employee. The cost to the shop owner was $5,000 to satisfy some bureaucrat's desire to show his [or, it could have been a her] importance. Is this not a case of "A Crown corporation out of control?"
In response, an ICBC bureaucrat said, "We follow the contract to the letter of the law. Fairness is extremely important." He -for it was a he - added that all companies are treated equitably. Perhaps, but there are some who claim otherwise. "Smaller shops claim the programme is skewed in favour of large companies." [Vancouver Sun July 7, 2003]
The letter the shop owner received from ICBC when it discovered his wayward wandering from the path of righteousness as decreed by ICBC bureaucracy reads, "You must cease and desist all use of the official mark/logo. Effective immediately, your facility is suspended from the Glass Express programme."
For failing to ask permission to use the logo in the ad, the shop owner was suspended from the programme for one year, forced to remove and return ICBC logos from his shop's front window and must tell his customers he is no longer on the Glass Express programme. [ibid.]
Yikes, just think what Icky Bicky might have done had the shop owner done something really serious, like punching a damn snoopy bureaucrat in his [or, it could be a her (we must not overlook the current politically correct, equal opportunity nonsense that is all the rage these dreary days)] long nose.
As Geoff Plant said in 2000 when in opposition, "It's a Crown corporation out of control."
In an aside, one presupposes that there are bureaucrats who have both minds and hearts and know how to utilise both. If they exist somewhere in the great maw of government, they are well hidden from public scrutiny. Perhaps they ought to be ferreted out and congratulated for applying common sense in the face of bureaucratic intransigence. Countering the bureaucrats are the front-line public servants who, for the most part, do a creditable job in the face of an often-hostile public. They, too, should be congratulated for their devotion to duty.
Bob Orrick is a private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
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