BOB'S STORY

Bob, a lifelong resident of Vancouver BC, works as an economist in a high-rise office building overlooking Stanley Park. Bob has had a lifelong obsession with angling for the various species of Salmon located in BC waters. One species that has caught Bob’s attention is the Atlantic Salmon known for the exhilarating fight when caught on a fly-fishing rod. Given Bob has Scottish roots tracing back to Central Cape Breton, Bob thought it would be nice to visit the area for the first time and have a fall vacation on Cape Breton Island.  That way, he could experience the fall colors, angle for Salmon in the Baddeck and surrounding rivers and visit the pioneer grave where his ancestors were buried. Bob arranges the necessary vacation time from work and books his ticket for October to coincide with the Atlantic Salmon fishing season in the central Cape Breton rivers.

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Upon arrival and touring the area, Bob met farmer MacDonald (the farmer) and was briefed on the happenings in the area. Bob became concerned that issues existed in central Cape Breton that were detrimental to both the taxpayers of Canada and the fish stocks in the local rivers. The farmer pointed out that recent flood events, amplified by climate change, cost significant amounts of tax dollars to correct. In addition, a significant amount of fertile farmland is being destroyed as the provincial & federal bureaucracy essentially handcuffs local landowners from protecting their land without significant personal expenditures and/or criminal charges for stream alterations. The farmer also pointed out that the fall Atlantic Salmon runs, once abundant, had dwindled to a mere shadow of previous numbers. Furthermore, the farmer noted that many of the pools in the Baddeck and nearby Middle Rivers had filled in due to the instability in the river systems. The farmer showed Bob a photo of a poster on a riverbank noting Middle River did not meet minimum conservation numbers to sustain the salmon population. He stated this was a true report card on the failure of the current federal and provincial policies surrounding the central Cape Breton rivers.

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With this information in mind, Bob set out to explore the Baddeck & Middle Rivers. Bob was impressed with the raw beauty of the area and the pristine quality of the water in both rivers. Bob picked a sunny fall day to explore for his ancestors’ gravesites. The farmer, knowing the location of the pioneer graveyard, took Bob to the site on the Upper Baddeck River. What Bob experienced upon arrival at the site was an overwhelming feeling of shock and dismay. His great grandmother Peggy’s grave was in danger of falling into the Baddeck river to be lost forever due to bank erosion. The farmer pointed out that following a significant shift in federal government policy in 1976 surrounding the federal Fisheries Act, a bureaucratic cloak funded by taxpayer dollars emerged with the message being “hands off the streams”. Furthermore, this carefully curated façade of red tape exists to the current day which Bob found as very disheartening.

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To provide an example of how the current government policy works against the public good, the farmer provided Bob with a recount of the 2021 flood event in the Middle River. In a November storm that witnessed the greatest rainfall total in recent memory, the farmer recounted how an individual driving over the Goldbrook bridge on the world-famous Cabot Trail nearly lost her life as the bridge was collapsing as she drove over it. This was due to the piers underneath the bridge collapsing as the changed trajectory of the stream upended them. The farmer stated that this was totally preventable as the river migrated out of its original channel a few years before the 2021 flood event that reset the river flow sideways into the piers for which they were not designed to withstand.

 

Citing bureaucratic control with no boots on the ground for oversight, the farmer noted this event could have been corrected with three tandem loads of amour stone to repair the breach in the breakwater upstream instead of a tax hit north of 12 million dollars. Knowing Bob works in the field as an economist and is well versed in federal tax expenditures, the farmer pointed out that Bob’s federal tax dollars were the main source of funds used in repairing the damage. With a sense of consternation, Bob knew that the federal government provides funding from the Consolidated Revenue Fund through the DFAA - Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangement and suspected he and the rest of Canadians funded a disaster caused by a policy mistake.

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Bob spent the rest of his vacation testing the Baddeck and Middle River hoping for a chance to hook an Atlantic Salmon. Unfortunately, Bob went home without any success and a deeper appreciation of how government policies that benefit a minute percentage of the population to the detriment of the population at large need change. Knowing that the newly anointed Carney government has stated that changes are needed to reduce an unsustainable federal bureaucracy and the current finance minister stated an emphasis would be put on investment vs. spending, hope exists for the future.

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Bob thought to himself that this may be the “low hanging fruit” to help right size the federal bureaucracy in terms of removing the federal governments involvement in inland streams through the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). After all, this would be a benefit to all Canadians as the farmer shared a pilot project concept he prepared that would return local control over the streams, provide sorely needed accountability and have a funding source created by the elimination of the federal presence in inland waters. This expenditure neutral stance appealed to Bob as slashing red tape and putting taxpayers back in charge is a good move for all Canadians and the environment. Bob told the farmer that in economic speak, the multiplier effect of his plan would be much greater than the current arrangement. He stated that supporting the status quo would have much less benefit to the Canadian economy as the current arrangement caused significant damage to the river systems. Providing local control with an eye to stabilizing the streambanks would see a broader cross-section of individuals benefiting from targeted government spending that actually benefitted the rivers. This would provide a much larger multiplier as the velocity of money flow in communities would be enhanced providing both employment and an activity that was an investment as opposed to mere spending. Knowing change happens slowly in government, Bob assured the farmer that lawmakers created this bureaucracy in the 1970’s and the current batch of lawmakers can change it.

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On his flight home to BC, Bob could not help thinking about the idiom written by Han Christian Andersen in 1837 that perfectly described the bureaucracy facing the rivers he visited. The phrase entitled “The Emperor Has No Clothes” stuck with Bob as the saying is used to describe a situation where a falsehood, flaw, or incompetence is obvious but unacknowledged due to social pressure, fear, or deference to authority. Bob hoped that a brighter future might happen for the Cape Breton rivers.