It is probably under-appreciated that the pace at which the government has been moving to address the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented. It normally takes months, even a year, to design new programs because there needs to be a careful way to ensure that it will actually go according to plan and not blow up in their faces. It requires consultation, because a bureaucrat is going to have a very limited perspective, and then it requires testing to ensure that it will work properly. We are now seeing programs being drawn up and rushed out the door on a timescale of days and weeks. This is not necessarily a bad thing. What is bad is the way in which the government is communicating with the public about this, and the inherent limitations to their capacity to get things done quickly.
One of the most common complaints we're hearing, particularly from certain opposition parties, is that things aren't happening fast enough. The NDP in particular keep demanding over and over again that the government just send out $2000 to everyone, and worry about means-testing after the fact using the tax system. The problem, however, is that there is no physical capability to do this, but the government and every minister who gets asked this won't actually articulate this fact.
"It's not as easy as just pushing a button," Bill Morneau told the Commons finance committee's teleconference hearing on Thursday, but that was the most he has ever said about it.
The fact of the matter is that one of the reasons the government can't just send cheques to everyone (or direct deposit where possible) is that there is simply no current database in this country that has everyone's SIN and address connected. Yes, the Canada Revenue Agency has most of this data, but not all. Even if you used last year's tax returns, people move, some people have died, others have been born, and there are plenty who have not filed their taxes in years, or who are absent from the tax rolls entirely for other reasons. You can't just join up with other government databases owing both to privacy limitations, as well as the fact that they are all set up differently. In fact, it's probably a good thing that they don't have this kind of database, and to the extent that we take our privacy pretty seriously in this country, you will recall the outcry that happened when Statistics Canada tried to use anonymized banking data to better capture a picture of the country's transactions (as overblown as that reaction was, even acknowledging that StatsCan should have engaged the Privacy Commissioner sooner in their process).
With this in mind, the government decided that using the CRA's system was probably the easiest way to go about it, but again, you can't just type in "give everyone $2000" and expect it to happen. Computers aren't magic, so civil servants have been working to reprogram the existing system to push through the new Canada Emergency Response Benefit to those who will have applied for it, while also making the upcoming GST/HST credit and Canada Child Benefit payments bigger than they would have been otherwise, but again, that can't be done overnight.
It would be great, however, if the prime minister or any of his Cabinet ministers who appear before the microphones daily could actually articulate any of these facts. But they don't. Instead, the government famous for its inability to communicate their way out of a wet paper bag talks in glowing terms about how they're helping Canadians, what kinds of unprecedented measures they've taken, and how they have Canadians' backs during this difficult time. But happy assurances are not explanations, and it's leaving themselves not only open to attack by opposition parties, such as the NDP who want a magic wand to deliver those $2000 cheques to everyone, or the Conservatives, who insist that three-to-six weeks to get the wage subsidy program up and running is too long for anyone to wait, but also every two-bit pundit with an audience. Spelling out that there are physical limits to how fast things can happen would go a long way toward ameliorating some of the anxiety that is being pumped out there, but they don't.
It would also be great if they could also properly explain some of the jurisdictional questions that keep being demanded of them, such as questions about rent, which is strictly a provincial matter. Instead of saying "Landlord and tenant legislation is the domain of the provinces," and maybe a "we've asked them to come up with a more comprehensive plan, but it's not something we can do anything about," we get more bland assurances like "We're not taking anything off the table," which just fuels the demands that they do something about it even though they literally can't.
I am not sure who advised this government that they had to communicate exclusively in happy, clappy talking points, or that they can't ever give reasons why they simply cannot do certain things, but it's not only irritating, it damages their credibility. There are only one or two ministers in the entire Cabinet who are capable of being blunt and forthright in how they respond to things Carla Qualtrough probably being the best example but we need more of it. I'm sure that some genius in their backrooms who is keeping an eye on the election rather than actually governing has told them that they need to simply stick to positive, reassuring talk during this kind of crisis, but it winds up coming across as infantilizing. We need some frank disclosure that they are working as fast as they can, that there are no magic wands, and that they literally have no levers over areas where the province has domain (and no, they are not going to invoke the Emergencies Act, the tool of last resort, in order to bigfoot landlord/tenant legislation). Most Canadians are grown up enough to understand that things take time and there are limits to what they can do. You may be surprised at how much candour can engender trust.
Photo Credit: In Halton
