Policy Data Source

What information does the government use to set policy?

The article I referred-to in my previous post was a bit of an eye opener for me.  I had thought about the labour shortage problem before, if only to see if a career of interest to me would be in demand.

Then everyone talks of missing government moneys for the soon-to-be retirees.  

Then we hear about immigrants willing to take those jobs that the local workforce presumably shuns.

Then… well the list goes on.

The first obvious observation from Mark’s article, is that it is much, and I do mean much more practical to open the borders to willing immigrants than it is to invest in training up the local workforce.  The business case is so easy, it’s not even funny: training/schooling = $$$, open the borders costs nothing.

And it kinda solves the afore-mentioned problem of providing the government with a cash cow to pay for the Canada Pensions.

A bit short sighted in my opinion, but industry will go along.  What the hell else are they going to do?  The business case is a no-brainer.  Heaven forbid they should contribute to the community by offering local trades schooling, providing sponsorship for students, etc.  Nah, it is much easier to import qualified immigrants.

The real problem is that we have conflicting information from the medias.   One says we are running out of money, the other says we have a surplus.  It goes again for labour; one says we need more people in the workforce, the other, less.  Same again for immigration.

I have been a manager for several years, and would often, if not always, make decisions based on hearsay, and dire lack of supporting data.  Indeed, many a decision was made on manipulated data, see my blog entry on this.  

So I ask the manager-type rhetorical question: what data does the government use for establishing policy?

Is it real? Is it accurate?

Has it been manipulated?  To wit: is it geared to be self-serving?  Is it supporting of election promises?  Is it targeted towards subjugating the populace?

If it has not been manipulated, who makes the interpretation?  Self-serving politicos, experts in the field, captains of industry, lobbyists?

Some conclusions at least, make sense: I take comfort in knowing that our beloved Prime-Minister read my blog and took heed upon slashing the budget for the useless firearms registry!