Take the example from MARINE SAFETY were decisions have been made and action taken that will undoubtedly have an effect on SAFETY with bulk carriers and tankers. The branch decision was to cut overtime as a means of meeting the goal. The result is that Pacific Region is no longer fully meeting its obligation to conduct safety inspections aboard tankers and bulk carriers and that decision could lead to a catastrophe for the men and woman who sail to and from our ports.

Shipping agents are not stupid people and once aware of the "NO OVERTIME" approach, it is a simple matter to have a bulk carrier arrive at a designated time for unloading and loading. Because inspectors cannot interfere with the industry, they cannot begin a structural inspection after the loading begins – they must be boarding on arrival and with the NO OVERTIME in place, that isn’t about to happen. By avoiding the inspection, the ship escapes what has been recognized as an extremely successful program in removing and correcting substandard ships entering Canadian waters. The ships sent to scrap yards or for repair under this program are too numerous to list.

The decision of NO OVERTIME creates the opportunity to subvert the inspection, NO INSPECTION means no action taken to repair or remove these vessels from service. Lives lost may be the result, but who really cares, they’re not likely Canadian crews after all.

And for the inspectors who are prepared to take time away from their families and disrupt their sleep, it is extra money, however, that money buys and insures a comprehensive and necessary inspection regime that protects lives, property and the environment. Doesn’t the taxpayer deserve value for their/our dollar.

In a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week industry, the employer, with responsibilities around the clock, has created an organization that operates on a dayshift basis only. Obviously in this circumstance, overtime becomes a necessary part of the business and overtime budgets need to be realistic if the inspector community is to have any chance of protecting the safety and health of the employees onboard and our environment as determined by the politic leaders and the Parliament of this country.

You want to save money and not cut program delivery. Stop the extraordinary costs associated with senior management travel and accommodation for meetings in Ottawa, and elsewhere and start using the benefits of the electronic age and teleconferencing. There is far too much executive travel and that, in itself, has created instability in the organization with the number of people working in, almost constant acting assignments and no real long term commitment to their branch or its programs.

Stop the printing and distribution of many of the internal communiqués that the vast majority don’t read and usually file in the wastebasket. You want to send out messages to employees, do so, but for goodness sake, use email or the intranet and if people want a copy, let them print it. Yes, it is true not all employees have access to email or other electronics, but it can’t be many, take the time and count them. After all GOL and the paperless office is the goal isn’t it.

Cut down the amount of administrative work performed by members of the inspector community and make proper use of their time. That means having sufficient administrative staff available to perform those tasks no longer performed by inspectors.

Have inspections being conducted by inspectors, not their managers who earn considerably more money for the same job,. In fact, if you check the records, you may find inspectors are more efficient at the job than their managers.

You might also want to put the money collected from fees put back into the program that generated them. Stop playing smoke and mirrors with the money Finance. And while we are speaking to FINANCE, perhaps it would have been a good idea to do some serious forecasting, taking all the contributing factors into consideration before approving the budgets this fiscal year. Remember what the company line is; "…our people are our most import resource…". Do you understand the implications for employees arising out of this budgetary mess? Seriously doubt there are positives.

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