AllYourHistoryIs
OursVille
Apparently, the BC Liberal government's failure to archive has been going on pretty much since the beginning of the Golden Era.
Bob Mackin is on the story, over at the Tyee:
...(In) a July 22 report.. B.C.'s Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham (writes) that 33,000 boxes of government documents are languishing in storage, waiting to be archived.
Denham said records, whatever medium in which they are created, "perform a basic function in society -- to document its transactions, events, stories and decisions" and are crucial to a well-functioning government if they are properly created, stored and classified.
"However, records do not need to be retained by government forever and at the end of their operational life they are either destroyed or retained in the BC Archives consistent with legislative requirements," Denham wrote.
The 33,000-box backlog is the result of a "standstill within government" over who is responsible for paying to archive government records that stems from the 2001-2002 core review...
Gosh.
Is it possible that the Dobell Doctrine has taken over everything?
...(T)he insidious shift towards "oral government" is growing. E-mails must be preserved and accessible under FOI laws. A debate is looming over Blackberry records. Yet the premier's multi-tasking assistant Ken Dobell startled an FOI conference in 2003 by announcing frankly that "I delete my email all the time as fast as I can." (then Privacy Commissioner David) Loukidelis later reprimanded Dobell for publicly admitting he avoids taking notes so they aren't uncovered by reporters under FOI...
Hmmmmm....
Boessenkool investigation anyone?
...A spokesman for the Premier’s office confirmed Monday (Oct 29, 2012) that no documents were created during the probe, saying all interviews and reports were done verbally....
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Upshot?...This latest thing actually looks like a massive failure of some sort of bizarre, short-sighted quasi-privitization scheme (with longterm consequences) wherein various Ministries were told they would have to pay the BC Museum 'corporation' hundreds of dollars to have each box of their paper records digitized...They balked and have been paying a few bucks a box to stick 'em in warehouses for years and years and years now...
Uncle Bob makes reference to a 'Cool Hand Luke' quote at the top of his lede.... 'What we have here is a failure to archive'...He attributed it to Newman...I remember Strother Martin saying it...But it turns out that the titular character returns to it at the end of the movie...The interwebz are terrible things...
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Wednesday, July 23, 2014
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9 comments:
This would be the same Royal BC Museum that just received a $53K cut to its operating budget. The cut made by government because Mike de Jong was “disappointed” CEO Jack Lohman was given a secondary contract that included more than $50,000 in perquisites and bonuses in order to skirt Mike’s nebulous “rules” on public sector compensation.
That cut alone would reduce the backlog by 114 boxes at current rates. In the only other province where ministries are charged to archive, that cut would archive over 3500 boxes.
And of course, if BC was serious about the responsibility to properly preserve the records of our governance and operated like most other jurisdictions in Canada, there would be no backlog to discuss.
Do you think there would be any BC Rail documents in there?
Would it matter?
Did we ever get paid by the CNR? Do we know how much?
were paying it back through translink west coast express rail line rent monthly.?
Not so much a Dobell Doctrine, but more along the idea of cutting down on Board meetings by intentionally not discussing issues. Kwantlen Polytechnic University uses it, so to do Municipal Councils along with the Premier Christy Clark's Executive Council. The Consent Agenda:
Q: What is a "Consent Agenda" and how will it make our meetings go faster?
At every board meeting, at least a few items come to the agenda that do not need any discussion or debate either because they are routine procedures or are already unanimous consent. A consent agenda (Roberts Rules of Order calls it a consent calendar) allows the board to approve all these items together without discussion or individual motions. Depending upon the organization, this can free up anywhere from a few minutes to a half hour for more substantial discussion..
PAB and/or GCPE for BC Ministers and Crown Corporations use the process to a new level by giving the title of items on the Consent Agenda an obscure name....
As BC Mary used to say.... nothing to see here folks, move along...
@John’s Aghast:
There had better be related documents in the backlog, but whether they ever see the light of day is another story. The fact the government is using our tax dollars and lawyers from the very branch of government that cooked this deal to hide it from us is especially galling. Those same lawyers, by the way, are from the branch of government that is supposed to act on our behalf to ensure deals like the Basi/Virk travesty don’t ever happen.
Whether CN paid the advertised price or paid a much-reduced amount because of tax liability implications seems to be a murky tale as well. I wonder what Mike the Finance Minister would say if asked? Probably he’d say the deal was all done verbally on a handshake.
One thing is certain. Whatever CN paid, it didn’t bankrupt them. They’ve contributed well over a quarter million dollars to the BC Liberal Party since 2006. They pay to play.
Worst case- it was done deliberately to hide accountability.But to whose benefit.?
It's worse than that: much forestry inventory isn't even being collected, let alone archived. Not knowing how much our forests are growing eventually allows for over-cutting and, in BC Liberal terms, that means juicy bonuses for insider friends that won't---can't--be detected until it's too late, if ever.
It might end up that the only way these boxed documents can be archived is if they're subpoenaed and collated with regards some kind of trial---say, for breach of public trust---or something like that.
RCMP?
will NDP response be -
we are disappointed.?
Without those records, she said, “wheels are reinvented, the ability to audit decisions is compromised and the right of access is undermined.” -
See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/b-c-government-records-piling-up-in-warehouse-report-1.1256621#sthash.wza7cyOW.dpuf
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