Is there not a Conservative convention going on somewhere?
The mandate of the CSA is microscopic, its coordinative and secretarial, their actual responsibilities could be accomplished with 10 – 12 full time staff and about $6MM in annual budget. Yet the CSA has over 1,600 full time staff and an annual budget of more than a quarter billion dollars. […]
Some of CSA’s activities “as diverse as life itself” involve bemoaning the problems of living “life itself.” Among CSA’s life-focussed worries, “too many people live without adequate financial means.” Yes. And we’re all quite concerned about this, and have been for some time, actually. The CSA wants to focus on “social good” and “delivering societal benefits” and “helping to identify and manage these issues, and in reducing [the] adverse effects” of living “without adequate financial means.” However noble these interests may be, they are dramatically, even profoundly, outside of CSA’s actual “engineering materials” purpose. […]
From former Chair, Daniel Gagnier; “We consider not only what we do […] but also how we made a difference in people’s lives.” This, from the agency responsible for bankrupting the companies to whom they sold counterfeit safety certifications. The CSA’s surely made a difference in their lives. “The CSA […] helps detect, expose and punish unauthorized use of our certification marks”. This, from Canada’s most prolific counterfeiter of certification marks. “Smart people don’t waste time or money.” This, from a domestic regulator that spends over $65,000 per day on travel, over thirteen million dollars per year on “other,” and that pays rent on thirty-five superfluous offices at golf courses and yacht clubs around the world.
Read the whole thing. This exposé needs to go further than one guy’s blog site.
It’s quite the racket. Create new regulations every few years whether it’s needed or not, then charge everyone for a copy of the new regulation they have to follow by law.
Let’s see; the Media is selling information about the “coat tails” playpen in Ottawa. Seems to be more an opposition playpen with the Conservative government in power. But why are they not investigating the C.S.A.?
Couldn’t be the Liberal Appointed “higher echelon coat tails” make up the needless employees?
The Mission comments for the C.S.A. sure does not come across as a smaller government Conservative outlook. Possibly the first step for the Media to investigate is the average tenure of the C.S.A. employees. This needs to be from the top echelon to the bottom. Always wondered where the lower level of coat tails received their Golden Ring job.
Whoops! Couldn’t be the Media recognize the Senate sinecure may be under duress and we all know about the squealing from the Wheat Board. Their fingers are still hurting from having the Golden Ring pulled away. It took a long time and much effort to make this trough redundant.
What’s the reason for the Media’s indifference?
Couldn’t be losing another sinecure reward situation will hurt their future employment opportunities, either as a high or low entitled coat tail. Cheers;
Welcome to Canada of the 21st century,the Kleptocracy have formed another government enforced protection racket.
The CSA is another failed institution ,as is Workers Comp,always they start out with the highest of ideals to meet a social need.
But the bureaucracy quickly solidifies into another wealth devouring, production destroying criminal organization.
Pools of public wealth attract the parasites, why work if you can feast off of the labour of others.
And their defence, when exposed for what they are,;” But we are here to help you.”
“The reality is that CSA exists to “coordinate” engineering standards, not to aggrandize itself with notions of sweeping societal improvements, or pompous pulpiteering on the nature of social good, or to come across as all contemplative, Ghandi-like, pondering the perplexities of human existence.”
Like so many government organizations, CSA has completely lost sight of it’s original mandate. It appears to have been taken over by social justice mandarins.
This organization should be replaced by a small group of engineers who test products,and nothing more.The funding for CSA can be ended,leaving their “empire” with no gold and no reason to exist.
Though I doubt we’ll ever see a government with the balls to do so.
Is CSA just another place for governments to reward political elite Party members for their service,or are employees of CSA actually required to have ability? 1600 employees!
I served on a CSA “Regional Panel” some years ago. It was created ostensibly to gather feedback from ordinary folks in different parts of Canada, but was rather more designed to do PR for the organization and “educate” us about how wonderful the CSA was. It was an enormous boondoggle (but I did enjoy the dinners).
Allow and encourage competing groups of standard setters.
Any regulation that becomes part of the law should be available without charge on the internet or at a nominal fee for printed material. CSA regulations, building code, accounting handbook, etc should be free.
Make sure you also send a comment to your MP.
Otherwise you are just bitching on a blog.
Yes I did – this morning.
and the Harpo gov’t has 1200 heritage ministers, fire them all
Hahahaa! Implying that the CPC or its base gives a fig about reducing government! Harper doesn’t care-he loves big government-the CPC doesn’t care, and the base will grumble and mumble something about incrementalism and then it will continue as before.
Those who came up with the ISO racket were probably inspired by the CSA racket.
This unbelievable state of affairs will not be raised as an issue by any one of our political parties.
One more over stuffed bureaucratic department that if dissolved no one but the progressives and media would miss.
The Cons, Libs, Dippers, etc are far far too busy fighting their petty partisan battles like little f*cking children to ACTUALLY solve a problem on behalf of the Canadian people.
I firmly believe that it would take decades to root out the largess public servants are helping themselves to. But that is not a reason to not look, just a comment to suggest Harper and the Conservatives need to be given the benefit of the doubt on some of this excess. It is so large and so vast that you just cannot cut the spigot in a year. The Public Service Unions would shut down government until Harper was gone.
Watch for a huge push from unions and media for Turdeau.
If the Conservatives attack the union front on, limited ability to spend union funds on politics, right to work laws, then they have a shot at splitting the vote and going down the middle.
LeDa;
I have been conservative by nature since my early 20’s. It simply never felt right to spend money you didn’t have. I was a driving force in the Reform movement’s organization and eventual election in our riding. I still support Harper’s CPC and still consider the progressive element within the party as subversive.
My cynicism of politics and those in government whether elected or not hit new highs after riding ‘A History of Booze in Western Canada’. From the fur traders to WW II it detailed a litany of corruption by politicans and bureaucrats who took bribe money. I think/know that this continues to this day. My retired Revenue Canada auditor confirmed this to me as his audits were routinely ‘taken over’ by Ottawa people. There is no tribunal within the CPC to ensure philosophical commitment. There are Conservative carpetbaggers (like Duffy) who are there for personal gain. Are they any different than the Liebel carpetbaggers in waiting? Do people seriously think the struggle by Reform to gain power was from a philosophical rejection? Reform threatened those who were feeding from the trough.
What the Liebels and Democrats represent is a massive expansion of the trough. Was the Mulroney or George Bush eras any different? Any politican who deficit spends is simply stealing money from one group to give to another and skimming his take off the top.
I still support Harper’s CPC and still consider the progressive element within the party as subversive.
Harper IS THE PROGRESSIVE ELEMENT. You are as useless and dangerous as conservatives that mumbled about Bush’s deficits and kept voting for him, which brought us President Obama.