Delete, Dump and Destroy: Canada's Government Data Severely Compromised

sandbagger writes: Stories about government data and historical records being deleted, burned — even tossed into Dumpsters — have become so common in recent years that many Canadians may feel inured to them. But such accounts are only the tip of a rapidly melting iceberg. A months-long Maclean's investigation, which includes interviews with dozens of academics, scientists, statisticians, economists and librarians, has found that the federal government's 'austerity' program, which resulted in staff cuts and library closures (16 libraries since 2012) — as well as arbitrary changes to policy, when it comes to data — has led to a systematic erosion of government records far deeper than most realize, with the data and data-gathering capability we do have severely compromised as a result.

Comments

That's OK

[Anonymous Coward]

in 29 days we're tossing Harper and his religious doomsday-cult Luddites into the dumpster of history.

I hope.

Re:That's OK

[tom229]

Have you seen the polls? Everyone's pretty much tied at the moment. If this keeps up we may have the first time in history (I'm assuming, I haven't looked it up) where 3 parties all have nearly equal seats in the house.

Regardless, Harper isn't the problem. He's a problem, but he's not the problem. I'm in the middle of reading a book called "Irresponsible Government" by Brent Rathgeber, who is a long standing elected member of the house that has recently resigned from the conservative party to run independent. He explains that the real problem in Canada is the consolation of power in the executive branch, specifically in the PM office. He goes through our history, the causes, and what we can do to solve this fundamental problem which obviously points to some level of legislative reform. Highly recommended reading if you want to understand how Harper has been able to push his personal agenda so effectively for so long.

Re:Sounds like a good thing

[JMJimmy]

It seems like a good thing on the surface, except for the reasoning behind it. It's not about collecting/not collecting data, it's about de-funding those who don't vote conservative. It's classic right wing tactics, they funnel money to their supporters by doing things like creating laws that will be struck down by the courts and hiring pro-conservative lawyers to defend them, increased military spending, etc. Those law firms, soldiers, etc. then give back to the conservative party in votes/donations. Then on the de-funding side they slash left-wing programs like libraries, sciences, etc. so those who would support a left-wing party don't have the funds to donate to them. There's also the motto of "rule as badly as you can" which makes government seem incompetent/short sighted which propels their anti-big-government agenda.

Also, unlike the US government, the Canadian government sells non-personal data it collects to businesses instead of giving it away. It's actually a fairly profitable revenue source for the government.

Re:"Austerity." You keep using that word.

[dryeo]

Different type of library. These are science libraries, things like all the fisheries research that us taxpayers have paid for over the last 125 years. They claim that citizens aren't using the libraries, which is true as they are targeted at fellow scientists and shut them down including dumping and burning all the years of research. The idea is to do away with the fisheries, which bring in $100s of millions of dollars as well as food in favour of selling raw bitumen. If there are no records of the salmon, it can't be argued that the bitumen spill hurt the salmon.
The local libraries are not a Federal responsibility.

Re:"Austerity." You keep using that word.

[bledri]

I do no think it means what you think it means. In governmental terms, it means "give us unlimited money so that we don't have to prioritize among the thousands of special interests begging and scraping for more cash."

In any other context it means that you are seriously lacking resources and have cut things to the bone. For you or me, it means we get rid of cable TV, the gym membership, take cheaper vacations, don't buy a new car, live in a smaller place, don't eat and drink out as often, etc.

Governments have a much, much different approach: they begin by exacting revenge on the unwashed masses that dare not give them every dime ...

There is no "governmental austerity." Anybody who brings it up is playing Orwellian word games with you, and should have filthy socks shoved in their mouths (and possibly other body orifices) until they stop.

You are right that it's Orwellian, but wrong about how. This is not a tantrum against the masses, it's a tantrum against reality. The libraries in question are scientific libraries. Specifically libraries that contain environmental records related to pollution, biodiversity and climate. This is an attempt to continue the hamstringing of any science that shows the dark side of the so called free market. Intentional environmental ignorance is financial bliss for the oligarchy.