Matters of fact

Monday, a federal report on how Environment Canada is managing its weather service programs was obtained by the Pembina Institute, an environmental research group in Alberta.What the report says is that, in a continuing effort to save money, the agency is falling critically far behind in obtaining accurate climate data, as well as storing and analyzing what data they do collect. The conclusions were blunt: “Environment Canada is on the road to junior partner status with respect to other agencies, both provincial and international, in the area of climate data gathering, quality control and archiving,” the 2008 report said.

“The common assumption among users is that the data has been observed accurately, checked for mistakes and stored properly … It is profoundly disturbing to discover the true state of our climate data network and the data we offer to ourselves and the real world.”

The report should come as no surprise: successive federal governments have nibbled away at all kinds of science programs in this county for years — the sad part is that, given its current bent towards climate change, the government of Stephen Harper is unlikely to see the value of keeping an accurate record of Canada’s climate.

Collecting and analyzing data is intensive and expensive, and if there is one thing that a variety of governments have learned, it’s that the facts generated through that analysis have a nasty way of interfering with ideology.

Take crime: we have a serious crime problem, and need “get-tough” legislation to bring it under control. That’s the current federal government’s mantra — except the actual numbers show a falling crime rate. Nasty facts, getting in the way of a government like that.

Or fisheries research: it’s hard to justify, say, increased caplin quotas if the science says there are concerns. Solution? As caplin scientists retire, don’t replace them, and stop doing full surveys. Magically, your problems with uncomfortable scientific reports just disappear.

For years, governments wanted to make informed decisions; they not only went out and sought information, but they went to great expense to generate arm’s-length information on which to base reasoned decisions.

Problem was, that kind of information was not always kind to particular political parties — so, instead, we’ve moved to a world where governments hire consultants to devise the answers they’re already looking for.

Agencies that provide information — from statistics to pure research — get smaller.

You can’t help but wonder if the information age has actually ended, and we have moved to something far more sinister — the opinion age, an age where personal ideology is more important in forming the direction of a country or a province than cold hard facts.

The irony is that we have never had a broader system for making information available in mere seconds. The information river is broader, but far, far more shallow than is good for making informed decisions.

We’ll all suffer as a result.