We in Nova Scotia have a problem that is not always shared in other places in Canada. It's been termed many things; "self defeatism", "infighting", "backstabbing", "a group inferiority complex", and the list goes on. This has become a bit of a self identity thing for some people, as more and more simply accept that it's how we roll. One of us works hard to rise above the rest, and they are dragged back down by petty, mean spirited, small minded mass degradation and devaluation of their achievement.
Even Sidney Crosby has lots of haters here. And he's barely old enough to have earned the scorn of the asshats who will never, ever, accomplish anything meaningful in their meagre, listless, and ultimately wasted lives. If that sounds like you, it's best to stop here.
Yes, a good proportion of our population is accomplishing just that. Sitting at below the average level of productivity, initiative, risk taking, and, dare I even use the word, entrepreneurship. These couch potatoes are like the Lilliputians with their string lines tying down our potential Gullivers. Many are to be found online in comment forums of The Herald, CBC and the Coast. Losers.
And then we have the opposite. As in most things, we have an over-compensating reverse reaction from a group of people. These are more hopeful, positive, though perhaps somewhat glassy eyed from the Kool-Aid. Here I speak of the "rah rah" types supporting things like a stadium/football team, a new Convention Centre no matter where or how much it costs, or a politician who wins simply because they were in office before. It seems that they tend to gravitate towards anything that needs a massive PR effort in order to succeed. It does not need to make sense if their tribe is proposing it. These people tend to just like what they are told to like and believe what they are told to believe.
So we have these two groups. Those who won't get on any banner, and those who won't get off, no matter how distorted the idea. And none of them thinking about anything but what's in it for them. The first group figuring to get even by bringing others down to their level, the second looking to get more by being on the right team; but both claiming they are doing it for the greater good.
In the midst of this convoluted culture is our government. Or should I say governments. Here we have three often dissonant groups each thrashing away like kids at a candy toss for our tax dollar and the chance to decide where to (over)spend it.
Anything we might want to do, there is sure to be a permit required to do it. Pretty well anything you want to do that makes sense, socially, economically, or just for sheer fun, is probably not supported by existing by-laws, regulations, laws, or policies of one of the three levels of government.
In fact, many things we know to be good policy, tested elsewhere, are either illegal, or discouraged here. But the real Nova Scotia element to this suppression is that the discouragement often takes the form of rules being interpreted with a goal of disallowing, or rendering an idea useless, or debilitating a business idea to the point where it can't make money. It's not illegal, but it might as well be for all the trouble it takes just to get your permit. Not for any real reason, perhaps just to make sure that no good idea someone else had ever gets realized.
Let's look at some examples.
Fire codes. We use this sacred cow to smother calves. No one has the courage to stand up to these people. They ask for the ridiculous, often apparently out of some desire for power over others, I guess. I am sure there was dancing and rejoicing when they put Tribeca out of business, along with the 40 or so lost jobs. Consider this: we paid for one of our own government agencies to relentlessly hassle a business that was in reasonably good health until it could not afford to stay in business. This was a long standing business that we extinguished by not being able to adapt to our codes changing over time. Other restaurants and bars are held to similarly Draconian officialdom - some are limited only by this group of apparent haters. One other nearby bar does not even have a kitchen, but is held to the same fire escape path lengths and widths as if it had fat fryers and pots on stoves.
We regularly pay about $6000 per new building to install fire hydrants that our fire department will not touch. The codes make us install the hydrants, and make us go out there and paint them yellow. A yellow hydrant is a "private hydrant". The fire department knows this, and they also know that only the red hydrants are maintained by Halifax Water. So they NEVER touch a yellow hydrant, because when they need water, they need it to work immediately. But we still make developers (including the government) put in the yellow ones. I sometimes wonder how many yellow hydrants there are in total in Halifax, and how the annual cost of installing new ones and repairing breaks around them compares to the cost of running the food bank.
We do this to ourselves.
Liquor licenses. This is a source of historic corruption, abuse, and nonsensical application of an ancestral protestant hatred of fun. OK, we have decided that to sell an organic substance that anyone can make, you have to have a license from the state. As if that was not enough, the state has devised a myriad of illogical, ill applied, redundant, and sometimes harmful rules, regulations and policies, such that this entire industry, one of our top job creators, is constantly hassled by overpaid, redundant inspectors and bureaucrats who really should be just out cleaning the streets or some other useful task. You cannot have a real pub in Halifax, a British Navy town. You can have lots of real/fake Irish pubs,but no true neighbourhood pubs. The senior citizens in charge assume that liquor is evil, therefore any bar must also be evil. These hypocrites probably love pubs when they visit England, and might go so far as as to wish we had them here, they are wonderful neighbourhood enhancements. Well, we would if we were allowed to. Zoning, parking requirements - yes you must drive to drink, and our complaints-based political system make establishing a proper neighbourhood pub impossible. Just try. Then go back to watching Coronation Street, you dreamer.
Obaldee, which is the type of place that you WANT kids to go to with their parents so that they can learn about responsible drinking and the respectful enjoyment of fine drink, is multiply hindered by the idiotic laws governing their operation. They cannot sell Scotch or other spirits. No real reason why, they just can't, some ancient rule is being misapplied on them. They can't have anyone under 19 in there at any time they are open. But the Pogue Fado can. Despite the full hearty meals that Obladee's delicious cheese and charcuterie boards make for many of their customers, the Liquor License fools interpret their rules according to the culture of no - they say it's not a full meal - I guess you have to have junk food and fries to call something a full meal in the culture of no. And apparently you have to serve full meals to serve scotch, but wine and beer are OK on their own. Imagine that!
Why is this? I say it's because it was easier for some bureaucrat to "just say no" rather than address the real life situation in a responsible and intelligent manner, and advise their Minister that a variance to their outdated brain-dead regulations be created. But no, we can't be seen to be supporting business that might actually create a few stable jobs in this wobbly economy.
Seniors Care Here is my "favourite" one right now. In Nova Scotia, if you want to take your garage and fix it up so your parents can age with your family but not be in the house all the time, good luck. We have a Department of Environment that managed to decide to regulate this activity, with the goal of making it possible, but couldn't manage to not screw it up, and instead of facilitating, they actually made it impossible to do in almost every case. And what happens then? People get sent to our overflowing senior's care facilities, funded by another part of government that is working to encourage more home care. Families who want to have the benefit and joy of having their parents around as long as possible are forced into sending them into a home, because what is essentially a typographic error is being enforced by a government department in a manner and outcome that is the exact opposite of the intent of the policy. They have known about this for years now and done nothing to stop it. In a culture of no, it's just easier to say no than fix something.
There are countless more examples. Environmental regulations that actually make things worse for the environment. Giving money to out-of-province companies who will only take it and run as soon as they can. The insane self prosecuting nature of our government departments who spend far more time policing other government groups than the actual industry. The running of our government purchasing system such that it actually biases against, or even excludes, buying local. A small company in, say Shelburne, that can do a job with almost no expenses for the Nova Scotia Government in their own town, must compete with two other firms from away, but purchasing policy dictates that the winner is the one with the median price, not the low price, so we actually spend more NOT to buy local.
We do this to ourselves.
Anyone who wants to say this happens everywhere need only go somewhere where government seems to actually want business to flourish and to create growth and jobs. In Moncton, for example, there is a palpable culture of YES. A business can start up, build its warehouse or office and go into business in less than a year, while the business opportunity needed to spark a new company still exists. In Halifax, by the time the Moncton shop is open, we are having a fourth public meeting with the only attendants being people who want nothing to ever change. We cede naysayers an inordinate amount of control over the permission to do anything here. There is a place for public interaction, but it cannot adhere to the culture of no.
We have to learn to start saying yes, and allowing an economic culture to establish that not only encourages our best and brightest to stay here, but allows them to succeed as well as, or even better than anywhere else.
We have to start celebrating our neighbours' success, not mocking it. We have to establish true buy-local practices that encourage import substitution of goods and services. We have to protect and grow our local food sources. We have to make sure our youth stay in school and can afford to achieve their full potential, and that they have a place to exercise that in their home land. Finally, we have to create a culture where it is an honour to run for public office, and one that allows a full participation of capable people, instead of the dull, dysfunctional, professional politicians we have now. A 2 term max, please? Eight is enough when it comes to years, and don't try to tell me there are not another 16 people here in HRM as smart as our current new council.
How can we start? A long discussion with a recently retired HRM bureaucrat offered some insight. It really does start at the top. If people in an organization are encouraged to point out and try to fix the inane things their department is doing, and not punished for it, they will. A Mayor or CAO who is out there setting an example, and recognizing the efforts of people who do really try to make things better can create change.
Our average intelligence is the same as anywhere. Our application of that is well below average. We need to smarten up and stop doing this to ourselves. Instead of having to have a litany of reasons why we should be allowed to do something, we need to focus on making sure our reasons for saying no are valid, and plentiful. Not every development or proposal is good, but they're not all bad either.
