Over 60 people were seated in St. Thomas University’s Kinsella Auditorium on Nov. 21 to take in a lecture by the New Brunswick Child, Youth and Seniors Advocate Kelly Lamrock on governance flaws that impact social programs in the province.
This lecture follows the recently opened physical Frank McKenna Centre on campus, which Jamie Gillies, STU communications professor and executive director of the Frank McKenna Centre, said is a gathering place for people to meet and share ideas, expertise and research public issues.
Related: Frank McKenna makes STU campus appearance, launches new centre
His talk was based on a recent report by Lamrock titled How it All Broke, where he identified five central flaws in governance within the province that have negatively impacted social programs.
Current and former cabinet ministers were in attendance.
He cited a particular case of a young boy who he called Peter who was facing a “variety of challenges.” Peter was in a youth correctional center and following his release, he had nowhere to live.
“He had extremely high needs, there was just no planning. There were two departments involved, but they hadn’t really coordinated until they suddenly realized that this young man was going to go back onto the streets,” said Lamrock during his lecture.
Lamrock said that Peter’s story was one of many he had looked at where no accountability is being taken for the lack of structures leading to negative results.
“Who is accountable when the lights go out in the eyes of a four-year-old boy who showed up loving stories and songs and wound up spending every day having nothing more to do than hang out in tents doing drugs because that’s where he was accepted,” said Lamrock.
“The answer in government is that nobody is accountable.”
He then questioned the entire process of some of these programs, saying that people in governance get rewarded for following the rules rather than positive results.
This is where it becomes a problem of financials, according to Lamrock. He says that despite public services being filled with people “who dream of making a difference,” they are told that there is “no greater sin” than breaking the rules or going over budget.
“If you follow the rules and stay within budget, if the child can’t read, or someone dies in the waiting room, or a child gets abused, that’s nobody’s fault. Nobody is accountable for that.”
Lamrock believes that things don’t need to be this way, saying that the way the government operates around these principles is often not questioned because it’s “how it’s always been done.”
He highlighted the five main flaws that lead to these issues: Lack of effective resource planning; the detachment of budgeting from reality; following rules instead of getting results; the utilization of minimal data and analysis without following up on it and a consistent funding of issues instead of solutions.
He chose to end the lecture on a hopeful note, thinking back to a time in the 40s when the world of social services was in a much worse place than it is today.
“I know when I say this could be better that I come here with the luxury built on generations of public servants and politicians who made it as good as it is,” said Lamrock. “Of course. it can get better because it’s improbable in the first place.”
Gillies was happy with the turnout and is excited for the future of the series.
“What we’re trying to do with the Distinguished Speaker Series is not just go with the former premier, prime minister and stuff like that,” said Gillies. “You want somebody who has a particular passion about something and I think we saw that with Kelly Lamrock.”
