By Richard Bell
In any democracy, it’s always a fair question to look at whether the government is being reasonably responsive to requests from the public.
Now what is “reasonably responsive” lies in the eye of the beholder—so let’s take a look at whether the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development has been “reasonably responsive” in responding to questions about its plans for replacing Eastern Shore District High, which Minister Zack Churchill announced in the spring of 2018.
In particular, let’s look at how Churchill’s office has handled repeated requests over the last 8 months from a significant community organization, the Musquodoboit Harbour Chamber of Commerce, to meet with the Minister.
On July 19, 2018, the Chamber sent a letter to the Minister asking for a “clearly-defined, transparent & collaborative site selection process” and a request that the school be built in Musquodoboit Harbour.
There was no response from the Minister’s office.
On August 1, 2018, the Chamber sent an email to the Minister asking for a non-public meeting at his convenience to discuss the site selection process.
There was no response from the Minister’s office.
On August 18, 2018, the Chamber sent an email to the Minister, following up on the August 1 email, asking for a meeting.
On August 30, 2018, the Chamber received a thanks-for-the-request reply that concluded, “With the Legislature returning next week, Minister Churchill will not be available in the near future.”
On September 13, 2018, the Chamber emailed the Minister and the Deputy Minister an official invitation to attend the September Town Hall Meeting. This time, there was a reply email on September 19, 2018 thanking the Chamber for the invitation. But neither official was “available to attend.”
On October 23, 2018, a Chamber member hand-delivered to the Education Department’s Business Office a copy of the Chamber’s Business Case report recommending that the new high school be located in Musquodoboit Harbour.
There was no response from the Department.
On February 3, 2019, the Chamber emailed another copy of its report plus a request to meet with the Minister in Porters Lake on February 20 on his scheduled visit to L’École des Beaux-Marais. On February 8, 2019, the Minister’s office replied, “Regrettably, the Minister’s schedule will not allow a meeting during his visit to L’École des Beaux-Marais.”
Later in the day on February 8, 2019, the Department announced that the Minister’s visit to Porters Lake had been moved up to February 13, 2019.
The Chamber immediately emailed a new request: “Is there any free time in the Minister’s schedule in the foreseeable future whereby we might be able to discuss our Business Case and how our organization can support the site selection process?”
The Minister responded later the same day: “Unfortunately, his schedule is booked up. With the House going in on the 28th, I will not be booking anything for some time.”
In our opinion, this chronology demonstrates that the Department of Education is not acting in a “reasonably responsive” way. With the announcement of a new school, we have a $25+million project that is of critical importance to the future development of the region. We have one of the area’s recognized community organizations asking to meet to discuss the concerns of the members of that community. And we have a Minister and a Department that have evaded this perfectly reasonable request for the better part of a year.
When government officials choose to hide rather than sit down and listen to their constituents, we may have what we still call a government, but we do not have a democracy.
