AG’s Hot Air Contributes To Climate Crisis

“Not being able to measure outcomes and progress goes to the root of not being able to properly inform council. We want council to have all the information available to them in order to make informed decisions.”

Nathalie Gougeon, city auditor general

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Oh good grief. The mind wobbles.

In an effort to preserve a sustainable supply of pixels, we will try to keep our analysis of the bullwacky in the whopper above to reasonable limits:

• Perhaps the auditor general could conduct an audit of how much greenhouse gas is being expelled in addition to the usual amount because of the failed $6.4 billion (and counting) light-rail project. Check perpetual traffic jam on the Queensway for high-level analysis;
• How much extra greenhouse gas is being expelled because of the very late and expensive Trilium Line extension and rebuild (in which former mayor Bob Chiarelli created a perfectly good commuter service for $33 million which former mayor Jim Watson improved to such an extent that it is not working and the completion date moves around like trying to pick up mercury). Perhaps Gougeon could also audit the odious Trillium Line procurement which slowly slipped off her workplan in the most cynical way. Maybe she could find an answer to the Trillium Line’s tardiness in that investigation;
• Maybe she should just conduct an audit of how the transit system has been destroyed by the Watson-Sutcliffe regime and the resulting climate diminution;
• Perhaps she should travel to the Climate Change Conference of Massively Polluting Countries of Southeast Asia, China and India to see how they are codifying their generous output of greenhouse gases;
• She should also audit how coal usage is at record high levels in the world and Ottawa’s (and Canada’s) ability to stop climate change is so small that it is insignificant;
• That the answer to climate change resides in the above CCCMPCSACI countries and good luck getting those regimes to take climate change seriously;
• That the solution to climate change is international, not national and certainly not municipal. That international public policy is outside the jurisdiction of the City of Ottawa where they can’t get the roads flat and the train to run on time;
• That if council had the codified figures for climate change progress in Ottawa, our elected representatives would have no idea what to do with them if they read them at all;
• That the AG’s report on climate change is essentially about hot air changing the climate of which her office is a great offender;
• That the AG is part of the senior leadership team at Ottawa City Hall thus she is auditing her close colleagues so you can imagine how that turns out;
• That given the AG’s office ignoring an audit of the stinky Trillium Line, it puts the office’s credibility in doubt. In other words, how can we trust what we read in AG reports?
• That perhaps the AG could consider merging her office with the media relations department because they both seem to be working toward identical goals;
• That if council had the power and information to drastically change the climate crisis, councillors would screw it up (witness our natural-gas-charged $1-billion e-bus fleet);

In summary, the public should not take a report from the AG’s office with a grain of salt. Instead the public should take it with the entire annual output of the company Sifto Salt.

Ken Gray

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