At some time in our lives in Canada we feel an urgent need to write a letter to a senior Government Official and normally we decided to write to the Minister responsible. Occasionally- if we are stupid about how government works- we write directly to a Premier or even the Prime Minister and his or her office forwards it to the appropriate Minister. (There are exceptions -sometimes that is appropriate.) Some of us still feel "the government" or "the man" is a big monolithic block that controls all things. In fact it is a collection of departments and each department controls a facet of our lives be it fishing licenses or drivers records or education or inspection of that hot dog that just made us sick.
You need to understand a few things about Ministers. They do get a lot of mail. So they have staff to answer it and they may sign the responses. When you get a response signed by the Minister you really should respect the effort that was taken to do this. Somebody worked on that letter, i.e. they actually read your letter and picked a standard response or even prepared one just for you.
You will find that your letters will normally have absolutely no effect on government. Normally you will get a polite response back and just as normally you will never get what you originally requested. About the best you can hope for is that you made somebody in power think about something in your letter. And when a Minister signs a letter normally he has at least skimmed yours. Sometimes he has requested a different response. Actually this is quite impressive when you think about the demands on this person's time.
Some will think this most unfair. But think about it. There are over 30 million Canadians. A few hundred or thousand of them write letters to the Premier or Prime Minister each month. There is absolutely no way you can incorporate all these ideas into government policy and then into action. But as you go down in levels your chances increase. When you go to the Minister level someone will actually think about your letter. Not for long perhaps but it will be pondered. Slip down another level to the Assistant Deputy Minister then Director level and your chances become better yet. Then there is the Manager and supervisor level followed by the clerical level. Sometimes you have your best chances at the clerical level - the level at which most work occurs in government. If you are trying to bend a rule you need to go up a level as normally the next level up has some managerial discretion.
Its not that the system is bullshit. I have worked in it and with it. But it does work and work reasonably well. Here are some hints;
- be reasonable
- put one request only per correspondence
- don't swear
- don't be insulting
- say thank you at the end -after all you are likely asking for something.
When asking for something try to be specific. For example instead of asking for "a break on the repayment of the loan" ask that the loan be "paid out in 20 equal installments over the next 20 months" or whatever -the idea is to be specific.
And remember, each time you write -your views represent hundreds of people who won't bother to write but feel the same as you. Once a trend of letters on a given topic is established you will be sure that somebody at the top is noticing.
What I have learned about most government workers is that
- they are intelligent not stupid
- they work hard and are not lazy
- they try to do the best for the taxpayer not try to screw them
- they pay taxes just like you
- everyone bad mouths them and they are hurt by it
- they do have a sense of humour they are not robot like drones
- they will work with you when they can
- like anybody they sometimes have a bad day
- they are there to deliver a program according to the rules and regulations and statutes which established it and so need to work within these goalposts
- they have the unenviable job of trying to keep everyone happy
- they like the rest of us have to put up with a lot of ....bullshit!
So write that letter. If its a reasonable request you will likely get a favourable answer. A paper record is produced and the government is required by law and records management procedures to process it and file it in accordance with retention schedules. That letter of yours might end up getting saved for many years before the paper gets recycled. It could even be selectively retained in government archives for posterity. Who knew!
Oh and one more thing that is not obvious to many people is that the elected government (the MPPs and MP's) are actually different than the public service. In the case of a Ministry the Minister is elected and the Deputy Minister is the highest ranking public servant in the Ministry. Unfortunately some people do not understand this simple yet critical distinction. Your public service is still there after the election, some of your elected reps might not be. The elected reps set the policy for the government and the public service represents the staff that make the government work i.e. deliver services and collect money.
So write that letter eh!
