The law can sometimes be an ass but bureaucratic rules can be even more dumb-ass.
We witnessed a couple of idiotic cases of bureaucracy run amok this past while.
One of them was the provincial focus on reducing social assistance payments to people who benefitted from the federal emergency stimulus payments of $2,000 a month.
The province reduced welfare payments because the federal emergency payments — intended to stimulate the economy — are considered extra income and social assistance recipients’ ability to receive extra income is extremely limited.
Here was a perfect example of how to stimulate the economy by giving poor people some cash. Within weeks they were informed the province would cut back welfare payments.
The social assistance recipients applied for the funds in good faith, unaware they didn't qualify.
The treatment was cruel. The province actually saved money on the backs of poor people and the policy to stimulate the economy was undermined.
A less heartless bureaucracy and government would have made an exception based on the rare pandemic situation.
A second bureaucratic idiocy was displayed at the first meeting of the new Moose Jaw City Council.
During that meeting Jan Radwanski spoke to council about the new school location. He was granted only five minutes to talk, instead of the customary 10 minutes.
When his time was up Radwanski politely asked for another minute to wrap up. Councillor Dawn Luhning wondered why he wasn’t given the usual 10 minutes.
Moose Jaw’s long-serving city clerk-solicitor pointed out the bylaw regulations allowed only five minutes time if the subject had come to council previously but he noted council has the authority to extend any speaker’s time.
Council did just that, but in the time it took Radwanski would have finished his comments.
Somehow the five minute rule was slipped by a previous council in an attempt to shorten council meetings. Silly rules like this really have little impact on meeting length but sure discourage involvement by voters.
The new council would do well to strike this five minute rule from the books.
During that same meeting Luhning expressed concern that council members don’t know what city administration is doing to attract economic development.
Obviously her concern arose after administration blindsided council with a proposal to develop a residential subdivision in Wakamow Valley.
Councillors were surprised to hear the city manager had been working with the developer in secret for 18 months without informing his boss(es).
Had the last city council not agreed to the manager’s power grab when it voted to eliminate the economic development committee, council should have known about this proposal long ago.
In any event, the city manager’s secretive actions broke trust with the voters — another unintended but damaging consequence.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
