Crisis Management

Whispering in the Wind (WITW 54) November 19, 2014

When addressing major issues, politicians use carefully chosen words as their primary tool to create relationships and hopefully, agreements – after all, if you can’t trust a politician’s word whose word can you trust?  At the same time politicians have used carefully chosen words to threaten their adversaries – where words are used to create weapons that lead to crisis and outright conflict.

Elevating the Crisis in Ukraine

At last week’s G-20 summit conference in Australia Prime Minister Harper of Canada offered his hand to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin saying:  “I guess I’ll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you:  You need to get out of Ukraine.”  Putin’s apparent reply was:  “That’s impossible because we are not there.”  Media observers concluded that the exchange between Harper and Putin was a diplomatically vulgar exchange of jabs.  I have drawn a somewhat different conclusion.  Prime Minister Harper is not known to make off-handed, spur of the moment remarks and that means Harper’s statement was orchestrated with the support of the major power brokers.  The encounter also means that the eastern provinces of Ukraine will become a major war zone with increased military support coming from Canada and other NATO countries.  From a political perspective Mr. Harper has again elevated himself to be a major player on the international stage; all to the chagrin of Mulcair and Trudeau who wanted to fight the up-coming election on domestic issues.   

Politics in Smoky Lake – A Regional Mini-Crisis

A major disservice has been delivered to the Smoky Lake community, a community with dozens of volunteer groups, groups that have always operated in the best interests of the community – how did things go so wrong?  To make matters worse, misinformation is being blasted out over the airwaves that are marring a once positive image of Smoky Lake, a community not operating at its best.  It started with a notification letter sent by Smoky Lake Town Council to the Smoky Lake Agricultural Society stating that the town would no longer live up to its contracted maintenance commitments at its massive recreational Complex.   At the same time the town issued termination notices to the contractors hired to do maintenance work at the complex.

Some councillors and at least one town administrative officer have gone viral on the internet to trash the Ag Society and its “volunteer” board of directors – suggesting that the Society has $500,000 dollars in cash and does not need any support from the Town of Smoky Lake.  What the         e-mails from the town do not indicate is that the Society has major commitments that require cash to be held in reserve – for projects that are either underway or where grants are being applied for, all requiring   contractual commitment.  To set the record straight there is $445,000 in the bank (as of last Friday) – if one considers the reserves necessary for the commitments, an estimated $58,000 remains for operating and maintaining the facility.  After consulting with the various user groups President Sharon Boychuk wrote to Smoky Lake Town Council and notified the Council that the Smoky Lake Agricultural Society would “relinquish responsibility” for the Complex as of September 1, 2015.  That date was chosen based on the desire to accommodate some already scheduled events like completing the minor hockey season this winter and accommodating about six already scheduled weddings where deposits have been collected. 

 As to making sense of the abrupt action of the Smoky Lake Town Council, one explanation has been offered:  the cost of maintenance is higher than anticipated.  Digging deeper I think there is another explanation that better fits current circumstances and it’s all political – the Town Council is using the possible closure of the Complex as a lever to get Smoky Lake County to give more financial support toward the operations of the Complex – a reasonable argument when one considers usage.  What the Town Council ignored in their strategy is the impact this mini-crisis has on volunteerism in the Smoky Lake region and by their abrupt actions, Town Council has severely jeopardized current fund raising initiatives and existing applications for major grants.