Microsoft word - 031027-blboondoggles-pb.doc

Boondoggles
Chamber Weekly CEO/Business Leader Poll
by COMPAS in the Financial Post
for Publication October 27, 2003
COMPAS Inc.
Public Opinion and Customer Research
Chamber Weekly CEO/Business Leader Poll by COMPAS in the Financial Post 1.0. Introduction
Government misspending may be the Viagra of government policy themes in the eyes of business leaders, who inundated COMPAS with volunteered comments about their concerns in that regard. From nine cases provided to them, respondents in the weekly FP/COMPAS web- survey sponsored by the Financial Post were asked identified the best example of self-interested corruption, an honest mistake, and an easily avoided mistake. Respondents volunteer dismay about all the examples and are far from a consensus about the best example of an honest mistake. But there is some agreement about best examples of self-interested government corruption (Firearms Registry and unaccountable HRDC grants) and avoidable mistakes (Firearms Registry and cancellation of Sea King helicopter replacements). 2.0. Findings
2.1. Details
The Firearms Registry and unaccountable HRDC spending top the list of self- interested government corruption, selected by 34% and 24%, respectively, as shown in table 1. They are followed by the Sea King cancellation and unsubstantiated advertising contracts. Respondents’ selection of examples of self-interested corruptions puts into relief potential differences of opinion about what qualifies as self-interested corruption. Experts might argue that the purest example was unsubstantiated advertising contracts, which have been a channel for government party patronage for generations. By contrast, experts might say that the Firerms Registry, however wasteful, was not as pure a case of self-interested corruption because little evidence emerged of funds going to friends of the government and because the government was under immense media pressure to take action in the wake of the Ecole Polytechnique murders. Chamber Weekly CEO/Business Leader Poll by COMPAS in the Financial Post Table 1: Q1. There has been some talk in the media about Government waste. Which of the following is the best example of self-interested The Firearms Registry, was estimated to cost $119M, of which $117M was supposed to have come from licensing fees. The registry is estimated to cost $1B In 2000, an audit of Human Resources and Development Canada discovered unaccountable $1B in unsubstantiated grants and contributions In 1993, the Federal Government cancelled the purchase of helicopters that would have replaced the Sea Kings and Labrador Fleet In 2002, the Auditor General reported $1.6M in unsubstantiated advertising contracts Bombardier has received over $3B in un-tendered contracts from the Federal Government The Federal Government cancelled a contract to expand Pearson Airport. The contractor subsequently sued the Government and won $60M in damages The Federal Government has recently purchased 2 new Challenger Jets for $100M for use by the Prime Minister and Cabinet In 1990, the Federal Government gave almost $3B to a consortium of oil companies to develop off shore oil drilling in the Atlantic Ocean Since 1994, the Federal Government has not tracked down $1B of fraudulently obtained GST credits DNK/REF 6 As shown in table 2, the Firearms Registry also tops the list of avoidable mistakes, withy the Sea King cancellation in close second place and the Challenger jet purchase and the Pearson cancellation in tow. Table 2: Q3. Which could have been most easily avoided? [ROTATE] Chamber Weekly CEO/Business Leader Poll by COMPAS in the Financial Post The Firearms Registry, was estimated to cost $119M, of which $117M was supposed to have come from licensing fees. The registry is estimated to cost $1B In 1993, the Federal Government cancelled the purchase of helicopters that would have replaced the Sea Kings and Labrador Fleet The federal Government has recently purchased 2 new Challenger Jets for $100M for use by the Prime Minister and Cabinet The Federal Government cancelled a contract to expand Pearson Airport. The contractor subsequently sued the Government and won $60M in damages In 2000, an audit of Human Resources and Development Canada discovered unaccountable $1B in unsubstantiated grants and contributions In 2002, the Auditor General reported $1.6M in unsubstantiated advertising contracts Bombardier has received over $3B in un-tendered contracts from the Federal Government. Since 1994, the Federal Government has not tracked down $1B of fraudulently obtained GST credits In 1990, the Federal Government gave almost $3B to a consortium of oil companies to develop off shore oil drilling in the As for avoidable mistakes, business leaders are somewhat divided, as shown in Chamber Weekly CEO/Business Leader Poll by COMPAS in the Financial Post Table 3: Q2. Which of the following is the best example of a bad mistake that was nonetheless an honest mistake? [ROTATE] The Firearms Registry was estimated to cost $119M, of which $117M was supposed to have come from licensing fees. The registry is estimated to cost $1B In 1993, the Federal Government cancelled the purchase of helicopters that would have replaced the Sea Kings and Labrador Fleet Since 1994, the Federal Government has not tracked down $1B of fraudulently obtained GST credits The Federal Government cancelled a contract to expand Pearson Airport. The contractor subsequently sued the Government and won $60M in damages In 2000, an audit of Human Resources and Development Canada discovered unaccountable $1B in unsubstantiated grants and contributions In 1990, the Federal Government gave almost $3B to a consortium of oil companies to develop off shore oil drilling in the Atlantic Ocean In 2002, the Auditor General reported $1.6M in unsubstantiated advertising contracts Bombardier has received over $3B in un-tendered contracts from the Federal Government The federal Government has recently purchased 2 new Challenger Jets for $100M for use by the Prime Minister and Cabinet DNK/REF 14 Chamber Weekly CEO/Business Leader Poll by COMPAS in the Financial Post 2.2. Respondents’ Volunteered Feelings on the Topic
COMPAS received a record number of volunteered responses (19), indicating the passions aroused by the topic. Respondents themselves wrote to say that they had difficulty choosing. Here are some of their observations: A west coast business person: “You have included many mistakes and very poor decisions. It was difficult to pick the worst.” A Calgary business leader: “Too difficult to choose just one screw-up.” One business respondent wrote at some length: “It can't be honestly answered because there is a wide gulf between political stupidity and plain old-fashioned pork-barrel corruption….some of the examples of 'stupidity' may actually be as or more egregious than those of corruption.” A business leader from northern Alberta captured the dismay of the group in the following words: “Government waste has reached monumental proportions. Most of us would not feel so bitter about paying taxes if so much of it were not wasted. If the waste and inefficiency were reduced by just 25%, we could better fund health, education, and even reduce taxes.” A senior executive with a major international corporation thought the list was a good one but believed that waste and corruption were not restricted to government: “One could come up with a similar list of really bad decisions in the private sector.” Several respondents volunteered the feeling that federal corruption was “rampant”, “sad,” or that all the examples were equally “awful”. An Ontario respondent put it this way: “How can you ask me to pick only one response from such a distinguished list?” An executive in the media and entertainment industry insisted that “all [the examples] are valid.” Another also thought all the examples were very good but felt that the worst case of corruption in federal history was John Diefenbaker’s cancellation of the Avro Arrow nearly a half century ago. Chamber Weekly CEO/Business Leader Poll by COMPAS in the Financial Post A British Columbian emphasized that the corruptibility of the federal government did not emerge because the Liberals were inherently corrupt but because they had no reason to fear. The problem is that national politics is a “one-party state.” Almost all the respondents indicated that his week’s topic hit the mark with them but not all agreed. Two respondents thought that the topic was unduly critical of a good government. They thought that it was unfair to ask only about corruption. By contrast, one respondent thought that the topic of federal corruption was long, long overdue: “Everyone is afraid to take the federal government to task on corruption. There is a big difference between the HRDC contracts where two billion dollars are missing versus a mere $ 1.6 million elsewhere. If I robbed a bank of $10,000 and got caught, I would go to jail. However if the federal Liberals steal HRDC grants for Liberal supporters to receive a share back through political donations with no benefit to Canada, there are no jail terms for this type of stealing. The problem is that every one is afraid of the government.” 3.0. Methodology
The National Post/COMPAS web-survey of CEOs and leaders of small, medium, and large corporations and among executives of the local and national Chambers of Commerce was conducted October 21-24. Respondents constitute an essentially hand-picked panel. Because medium and small companies are more numerous in the economy and hence among Chamber membership, the actual respondents in this consultative panel are drawn more from these strata than from the stratum of the largest companies. Because of the small population of CEOs and business leaders from which the sample was drawn, the study can be considered more accurate than comparably sized general public studies. In studies of the general public, surveys of 144 are deemed accurate to within approximately 8.2 percentage points 19 times out of 20. The principal and co-investigator on this study are Conrad Winn, Ph.D and Tamara Gottlieb.

Source: http://www.compas.ca/data/031027-BLBoondoggles-PB.pdf