Trust in government

I am disheartened to see that the province of New Brunswick may be on the verge of letting a great opportunity pass us by, and many due to a general lack of trust in government. The province has proven reserves of natural gas locked away in shale formations, and several companies are interested in developing it. This could transform New Brunswick into a "have" province. And the government is putting the proper regulations and protections in place to make it happen. But when it comes to trusting our elected officials, and public servants, to run the province and protect the best interests of the province, many seem to feel it is a myth. They feel like the government will mortgage the future for current gain, and that they are too incompetent to manage the resource properly.

Now I am the first to admit that our public sector is not the most efficient service delivery mechanism in the world, but if we stop trusting them to do anything at all, our whole system will start to fail. If citizens stop believing in their governments ability to govern, then the system has failed.

I am of the belief that the majority of elected officials and public servants truly want to do what is best for the province. There may be mistakes and inefficiencies along the way, but in general the public good is what they are striving for. So when push comes to shove, my initial tendency is trust that they will enforce the rules and regulations, that they will do what is best for the general population, but I fear I am in the minority.

The truth of the matter is that the real power in government lies with the civil servants, not the elected officials. The governing party can sway policy, but the public servants are in it for the long haul and don't want to destroy the province anymore that the citizens do.

This lack of trust in government, and lack of trust in oil companies, has lead to much of the opposition to this opportunity. The public told the government that they wanted their water and environment protected; so the government developed the most comprehensive set of regulations ever devised for the shale gas industry. The opposition to shale gas development said "learn from other jurisdictions mistakes"; so the government looked at the mistakes made in the US and learned that most of the pollution caused by fracking has happened in US states were the industry has little or no oversight and no regulations are in place. In area's where regulations and oversight is in place (Alberta, BC, Sask), there has been very few issues.

As David Campbell notes in his blog today, two of the largest environmentalist groups in North America, the Nature Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund, have essentially agreed that with good planning and regulation, shale gas can be developed with minimal damage to the environment. (davidcampbell.com/?p=5958) .

So why do 50% of citizens polled still think shale gas development should be halted? Well a small percentage of them are of the opinion that we should stop using fossil fuels immediately and go back to living off the land, but still more of these citizens don't trust the government to protect them and the environment as they have promised to do. The anti-shale gas lobby is partly to blame, and perhaps citizens should do more of their own research before forming opinions, but the fact remains that if citizens still trusted their governments, they would hear the government's promise to put proper regulations in place, and trust that that is what will happen.

Of course, its not just the government that we don't trust, its the big bad oil companies. The idea that these companies are crooked and just throw around money so they can ignore regulations seems to persist. I can tell you from experience that these companies are definitely focused on making as much money as possible, but what company is not. But they also know that if they run roughshod over the regulations and environments they want to work in, they are quickly going to run out of places that will let them develop resources. In today's global business environment, companies know that they must play by local rules if they want to stay in business.

So we must trust our government to enforce the regulations they have set out, and to do what they say they will do. Sure the elected officials want to erase the financial problems of the province and thus be the heroes and get re-elected; but the civil servants who actually are in charge of enforcement of the rules and regulations, are bound by the rules and their duty to protect the provinces resources and future.