Feds Unloading RCMP Responsibility: Advocate

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

Feds Unloading RCMP Responsibility: Advocate

St. John’s - Citizen advocacy organization Our Duty is condemning the federal government’s proposed budget plans for the RCMP. 

Yesterday, Assistant RCMP Commissioner Daniel Dubeau unveiled the Mounted’s deficit reduction plans to staff.  Entitled ‘RCMP Health Services Modernization’, the memo outlines a number of crucial changes, some of which “require authority to change legislation.”  Among the changes are: relegating medical costs from federal to provincial budgets, privatizing supplemental health insurance, outsourcing disability case management, and scrapping the RCMP’s current psychological support program.  It will also discard its current leave-entitlement program for a “sick-leave bank system”.

Our Duty President Jeff Rose-Martland says these moves amount to the federal government shirking responsibility.  “Care of our national police force is being dumped to provinces and private companies,” he said.

“By Act of Parliament, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is a federal body.  They serve by federal appointment and they answer to federal authority.  Whether they serve at home or abroad, Members of the Mounted are employed by the Government of Canada.  Members answer to the RCMP Commissioner, who answers to the Public Safety Minister of Canada.  It is a clear chain of command in one direction and a clear chain of responsibility in the other.”

The Our Duty President notes that the proposed changes will result in inconsistent benefits for the Mounted.  “Primary health benefits vary provincially, which means Members will be covered - or not - based on where they serve.  The cost of additional coverage will be levied on the officers, which will mean a pay reduction that varies by deployment.”

Rose-Martland also condemns the internal changes.  “A leave-bank system means that Members will have to earn time-off in advance.  That will have officers working when they are not fit because it’s January and they haven’t earned sick time yet.  Or worse, they will have used their available time and have to return to work when they are not capable of fulfilling their duties.  Leave-bank changes focus from performance to pay check.  We should want our police operating at peak ability, not mucking along until the boss says they can have time off again.”

He adds, “The outsourcing is going to alienate Members.  Right now, whether it is disability management or personal support, the Mounted looks after its own.  These changes will have Members appealing to outsiders and feeling abandoned by their peers.”

“The Federal government wants to use the Mounted but not take care of them,” the citizen advocate concludes, “No matter how you spin this, cost savings or efficiency, it still amounts to dereliction of duty.”

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NOT FOR PUBLICATION

Media Contact

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Jeff Rose-Martland

President, Our Duty

exec@ourduty.org

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BACKGROUND

RCMP Health Services Modernization

As a government organization, we have a responsibility to spend taxpayer dollars wisely. Government agencies must always look for efficiencies and the RCMP must focus on keeping Canadians safe.

 Our Senior Executive Committee set two overarching principles as the basis for the RCMP’s deficit reduction exercise: minimize impacts on direct policing operations as well as the impact on RCMP employees.

 A number of our proposals require authority to change legislation in order to move our initiatives forward. On April 26, 2012, the Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act was tabled in the House of Commons so I can now provide you with some high-level detail on the RCMP Health Services Modernization proposals which will be implemented over the next two years and contribute to the RCMP’s savings.

 Basic Health Care

 The Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act is proposing that Regular Members fall under the Canada Health Act.   If adopted, Regular Members will need to apply to be covered by provincial health care. In addition, the RCMP will also be working with provinces and territories on how to implement this new process. This new approach to Regular Member health care will allow the RCMP to modernize its Health Services program.

 The inclusion of Regular Members in the Canada Health Act will allow the RCMP to decrease administrative functions that do not support core policing.   This opportunity will also realize financial savings for the RCMP and the provincial/territorial contract partners as Regular Members would be defined as an “insured person” under the Canada Health Act. Accordingly, Regular Members would no longer be billed to the contracting jurisdiction as non-provincial residents, which previously added to the cost of their treatment by as much as 200%.  

 If approved, a more detailed implementation plan, including how to apply for provincial health care/card, will be communicated to Regular Members.

Supplemental Health Care

 Regular Members will continue to obtain the health care services they require. In support of this, the RCMP will be moving its supplemental health care program to an actual insurance provider for supplemental health coverage rather than the current internally funded program.

 More information on this initiative will be communicated as we move forward with implementation plans.

Sick Leave

 The RCMP is examining the possibility of implementing a sick leave bank system. Under this proposal, all Regular and Civilian Members would accumulate sick leave instead of the current system of leave entitlements.

 The RCMP is also looking at establishing an internally-funded short-term disability program based on a leave bank system. This program is part of an overarching Disability Case Management Program to help manage a member’s return to work in a more professional, beneficial and timely manner.

Disability Case Management

 The RCMP is modernizing the administration of its current Disability Case Management Program by moving to an outsourced model which would have an external service provider undertake the administrative functions related to the management of individual member cases and associated return to work.

Member/Employee Assistance Program (M/EAP)

 The M/EAP program will transition to the Employee Assistance Services (EAS) program from the current peer-based referral agent. Health Canada’s Employee Assistance Services (EAS) provides a referral service when addressing psychological services. EAS is the largest public sector provider representing more than 140 organizations and over one million clients across Canada.

 All employees (including Regular Members) and their dependants will receive consistent, timely, professional and confidential access to short-term counseling services.  Services will be available from certified counselors 24 hours per day, 365 days a year though a telephone service.

 More information on this initiative will be communicated as we move forward with implementation plans.

 I recognize that you will have questions, especially on how these initiatives will impact you and when they will be implemented. A dedicated team has been established to oversee these Health Services Modernization initiatives. We will share more information and details with all employees as soon as they become available.

 Sincerely,

 D.G.J. Dubeau, A/Commr.

 Chief Human Resources Officer

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Broken Soldiers: Epilogue

Clerisy Entertainment's Broken Soldiers has been running on Eastlink-TV and one may be left wondering what happened to Fabien Melanson.  Here's what happened:
What Happened to the Hunger Striker?

The Our Duty website is have some technical problems, so I am re-posting this here.

If you want to help Fabien, you can give by:

Paypal/email transfer to fabien@ourduty.org

OR
Donations can be made at  TD Bank
Transit #: 05023
Institution #: 004
Account #: 6418137
Name: Jeff Rose-Martland for Fabien Melanson

OR
Cheques & Money Orders
Payable to: Jeff Rose-Martland for Fabien Melanson

Send to: Fix Fabien's House
4 Neville Pl.
St. John's, NL
A1E 2E7

(Regarding the Our Duty site - we seem to have bee caught up in the Google java-browser-hijack along with 20,000 other sites.  If you try to get to ourduty.org via facebook link or a search engine, you get security warnings and/or nothing.  If you click here: http://ourduty.org I hope you will get there.  If not, copy/paste the address into your browser and you will get there fine.  The site itself is safe, the hijacking/malware appears to occurs when coming in from facebook or search engines.  We are working on fixing that.)

Now on The Huffington Post

I am pleased to say that my work is now on the Huffington Post!

A few weeks ago, Our Duty released an analysis of the Veterans' Affairs 2010 Client Satisfaction Survey.  When i sent out the press releases, I sent one to HP.  About a week later, the Canadian editor replied and asked if I could turn it into a blog.  I jumped at the chance; its not often an editor contacts the writer for work.

This is the result.

I'm pleased with it.  Huffington is giving me the opportunity to say what I think about the survey, instead of just analyzing it, and I'm always happy to give my opinion on something. ;)  Huffington are also willing to consider anything else I care to submit.

Here's a bit about my experience with the Post, for those who may be getting their first break.


Huffington does not pay for your articles.  However, given that they have editors and a high-profile, HP is an excellent writing credit.  (As you know, one of the things about being a writer is that you need other people to say you are good, otherwise people don't take you seriously.)

Next: Huffington does not work like a standard press platform.  While they want items that are timely (the editor was concern that I was writing about something from 2010), they also don't seem to suffer from the immediacy of, say, newspapers.  It took about two weeks to get my post up.

Part of the reason for that was scheduling: week 1, the editorial staff was short-handed.  After I bugged and bothered, I finally got a response requesting that I make my submission more timely.  I did a quick edit and had it sent back within 48 hours (it was a weekend, so I didn't rush).  After another week of silence, I needed to be a pain-in-the-ass again:  I had updated my post by hooking it to the federal budget, and budget day was less than 3 days away.  This time, it turns out the Editor was on vacation, but she interrupted her break to give it a read and send it to the posting staff (for which I am grateful).

My advice?  When submitting to the Huffington Post, make your blog timely but not time sensitive.  Write about something current which is either ongoing (say, robocalls right now) but not dated (like Elections Canada officials testifying today).  Huffington is not looking for news-stringers; they have staff that handles that.  What they want from you as a blogger is insight, analysis, and relevancy...but not immediacy.

It helps if you give the blogs-section a good skim before you begin; that should give you some good ideas on timeliness.

So I need to offer special thanks to Danielle Crittenden, both for giving me the opportunity and for putting up with my impatience.  You should check out her blog as well.  There a great article on vaginal drinking.  (no, I'm not making that up.)

On Response Rates

We have a multitude of ways to communicate with each other: phone, fax, email, social media, instant messaging.  I'm sure if I looked, I could probably even find a telegram service (legit, not stripper).  All this technology, all these ways of contacting the right person to get your issue addressed, and what do these people do? 

Ignore everything.

Phone calls are handled by people who take messages or, more often, by electronic message boxes.  In either case, your message will likely be ignored.  Email goes unread.  E-messages and social media posts go unanswered.  Faxes get shredded or filed, no response.  We have all these communications methods and, when it comes to reaching the person you need to contact, you might as well be standing on the roof shouting for all the good it does.  And the more "important" the person, the less likely you are to hear from them. 

And if you do hear from their assistant, you frequently get the worse-than-silence response: a promise that your issue will be reviewed and you will be contacted.  In other words, stop trying to reach us; we've already trashed your communications.  Then there's the ever-popular out-of-the-office message: "I am out of the office and will be returning on XXX.  If this is urgent, please contact..."  Well, if it’s not urgent, you leave your message and expect that person will get back to you when they ARE in the office.  Apparently, that is not the case.  It seems that out-of-the-office is now an excuse to dump every message that came in during that time, as if they never occurred.

And then, there's my own private hellish torture: the people who contacted ME, and asked/offered something, who then disappear, leaving me clicking refresh on my email every 10 minutes for the next month.

Common courtesy in communications has gone the same way as politeness on the internet: down the sewer of self-importance.  One would think it would be easier to actually speak to the individual than to continue finding new ways of avoiding them. 

So I want to ask, appeal, implore, BEG you to change your methods.  If you don’t now and never will communicate with those who are trying to reach you, then at least be honest about it.  Take your contact info off your websites.  Set your outgoing message to something like "Don't bother; I'm not going to respond." 

And, above all, don't call people; make promises, and then bail.  That is the worst form of rudeness there is.

For their own good.

Whatever happened to pro bono publico? The idea that lawyers would do work to help the public in order to ensure equality before the law and to help individuals who could not afford to pay them? Where did that concept go?

 Last August, the GG said law firms in Canada donate less than 3% of their time to this fundamental legal ideal. 3%? You could have knocked me over with a feather. Because, as near as I can tell, that might be a couple of firms using ALL of their time, while the rest don't do any pro bono work.

 Because I've been pitching a simple case for a veteran who was mistreated. There is nothing complex or convoluted and it should be able to be resolved with a few letters written. I've approached dozens of lawyers and SIX pro bono societies. Response rate? 1. Not 1%, 1 response. And repeated querying of the societies supposedly dedicated to doing this work has not resulted in a single word. In my experience, the GG's estimate is grossly overinflated.

 Which leads me to suspect that every negative thing said about lawyers may be true. Because if not one will step up to help an impoverished veteran, then the profession really believes pro bono pocketo.

Money, money everywhere, but not a cent to help

Since I started fundraising for Our Duty, I have found it very difficult to listen to any news story that discusses money. 

To date, our biggest donations have come from veterans on fixed incomes, who have scraped together a few bucks out of their meagre pensions to support us.  It is amazing that they did and we appreciate every one.

BUT

Listen to any news cast you hear about hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars changing hands, as profit, as waste, as the fine-points in a negotiation, as the net-worth of a company that makes crap.  All that money, flowing all around.  And people like me, who are out there trying to fix a problem or make the world better; we have our hands out, saying please help me help others.  And the money whirls past, like in some pathetic game show booth.

A percent of a percent of the funds being discussed would turn any organization into a major force.  If would take operations out of basement or garage and into an office.  It would let the volunteer staff stop worrying about their own bills and focus on doing what they do best.  It would enable travel to significant events.  It would buy ads to help spread the messages.

But you try getting those funds.  Damn near impossible.

I'm afraid to add up the number of volunteer hours behind Our Duty or to tally the costs we have contributed.  I don't want to know how much we have donated because then I will be even more angry and disillusioned.  Especially since I know a lot of that time and energy has gone into fruitless funding appeals.

And the most aggravating part is the silence.  Letters, emails, phone calls, faxes - most are completely ignored.  Perhaps 1 in 1000 actually gets a response and that’s a 'no'.  The rest just disappear, like you flushed a great wad of your time and effort down the toilet.

The Haves not only won't help, they won't even listen.  Which creates our current situation:  Those with the least to give, give the most.

And that is heartbreaking.

Dear Jeff Skoll

(Yes, this is a letter to Jeff Skoll.  You may read along.  You may even comment.  Even better, you can print this off and give it to Jeff, if you know him.  For that matter, if you know someone of similar mind and bank account, you can give this to them, too.)

We don't know each other and we probably don't have much in common.  I've shopped on eBay, I write, and I'm Canadian.  That's probably the end of the list.

Oh, one more thing: I also champion the underdog.

I've read a lot about your philanthropy over the past 24 hours, and I admire the way you are approaching it.  Good job.  I am always glad to see someone following their moral duty, especially when the only thing driving it is their own drive.

In fact, I have admired many who have done this: people who stick to their guns, who declare that a thing is right, and who do it regardless of harm to themselves.  I have a list of names: Romeo Dallaire, Linda Keen, Pat Stogran...and you.  And others.  Oh, its not that giving away your money is the big deal; many wealthy do so.  It is the WAY you are doing it.  I can see that you are personally involved in doing what is right and your money happens to be the tool you have handy.

As for me, I too feel this drive, this thing inside that tells me to stand up and point at things that are wrong.  18 months ago, this drive kicked in as I watched a man lose his job for standing up for what is right.  Col Pat Stogran, Canada's first Veterans' Ombudsman, lost his position because he was too outspoken.  Upon learning this, his first response was "Oh, you thought THAT was outspoken???  Tune in to tomorrow's press conference!"  And so he did hold a press conference and he blew the lid off a slew of problems at Veterans' Affairs.

Citizens like you and I, we don't pay too much attention to veterans.  We know people enlist in the RCMP and the Canadian Forces.  We know they get hurt and killed.  We stand proud of Canada's role in peacekeeping.  We wear our poppies on Remembrance Day.  But otherwise, we don't think much about them.  Part of that is because we don't want to think too much about the horrors they see and the things they endure.  The other part is that we think they are taken care of.  After all, this is Canada!  Of course they are looked after!  No one would even debate the need and there has never been a debate about funds.  We pay our taxes, secure in the knowledge that, of all government departments, Veterans' Affairs will be run properly and the vets looked after.

Which, of course, is completely naive when you think about it.

But Col Stogran changed all that for me.  He told me, a civilian, what was really going on.  And the veterans themselves, in comments on the press coverage, also told me the horrors of this department.  Within 48 hours, I had found the Col and offered to help spread the word (having some measure of social media skills).  He accepted.

A week later, I had a campaign, a website, and a name for the organization: Our Duty.  The purpose?  To fix Veterans' Affairs and to make sure that we take care of our veterans, at least in the way we thought we had been.

What's wrong over there?  Well, there's the big things: failure to cover exposure to Agent Orange/White/Purple and depleted uranium.  Pension clawbacks.  Replacing a monthly pension with a much smaller lump-sum award.  Then there's the small things: thousands of pages of policy.  Staffing problems.  Case mangers carrying a load of 1000+ claims.  Years-long processing times and decades long appeals processes.  And then there's the dirty things: passing around the private medical files of any critic.  Cutting benefits to those same critics.  Trying to get veterans who stand up for themselves committed to mental hospitals.  Yes, Jeff, its happening in your Canada.

Outraged?  So am I.  Motivated?  Well, I am.  So much that I have been labouring long and hard this past year-and-a-half.  OurDuty.org has become Our Duty Inc - a registered not-for-profit.  We even have a board of directors.  And a bank account containing $10 (our treasurer's recycling money).

And that's the problem: Our Duty is broke.  We have the drive to make things happen.  We have the knowledge and will to solve the problems.  We have the desire to stand and declare That Is Wrong!

But we don't have any money to do it.

We've donated thousands of hours in manpower, and we would gladly do so again, if we could just figure out how to pay our bills.  Our Duty could have a major impact, if we had enough cash to buy a few ads once in a while, to help spread the word.  And if we weren't all stressed out about making ends meet.  Because, as you know, advocacy doesn't pay.  At least, advocating for veterans doesn't pay.

In the land of the government grant, we can't get funds. Veterans' themselves are broke. The provinces say that veterans are a federal issue.  The Feds are hardly going to fund a group that is critical of them.  Philanthropists don't want to upset the government by funding advocacy.  And no one wants to sponsor a group that speaks truth to power.

Except, perhaps, you.

Jeff Skoll, you like underdogs?  Here's one.  Our Duty, a group of rogue citizens committed to fixing an entire government department, provided we can find a way to feed our families while we do that.

Jeff, you're a Canadian.  You know how important those uniforms are, the blue beret and the red serge.  You know what the Battle of the Somme means.  And Rwanda.  And Suez.  Haiti.  The Balkans.  Afghanistan.  And so on.  You know that Canada made those commitments and sacrifices, not for glory, but for humanity.  We have sent our fellow citizens to the furthest outposts of the globe, to bring peace and aid, or, when everything else fails, to bear witness to atrocities so that someone will know.  Our fellow citizens answer to call to fight, to rescue, to bag sand and shovel snow, to fly in blizzards and to march on ice, to get maimed or killed, because it is necessary.

Jeff, my fight is also necessary.  Someone, some civilian, an unbiased third party, needs to wade into this fight and bring stability. Veterans are biased one way; politicians and bureaucrats the other.  Citizens are the employers of both sides.  We can make the peace and fix the problems.  We can do it.  All it takes is clarity of vision, will to change, and drive to labour.  And a few bucks to pay for the gas.

Jeff Skoll: your veterans need you.  Your government needs you.  Your nation needs you.  I need you.  Will you help me make this right?

Best Regards,
Jeff Rose-Martland
President, Our Duty inc.
http://ourduty.org

P.S. I am putting this letter into an electronic bottle and casting it adrift on the seas of cyberspace in the hope it finds you.