It looks innocuous, doesn’t it? and it sounds kinda … classy … Centre for the North. Even the body that’s pulling it together has a neutral sound to it: Conference Board of Canada.
But being a money coach in my past life, I’m always interested in following the money (and those of you who have watched the Best.Series.Ever, The Wire, will have had that emblazoned on your brain too). And when I followed the money on this, here’s what I found at the end of the document:
Funding of the Centre
This Centre will be funded by a variety of organizations from the private and public sectors. We are asking each investor to commit for a five-year period.
There are three levels of investment:
Champion investor ($100,000 annually)
Champion investors will be deeply involved with Conference Board staff in the drawing up of the Centre’s research plan and meeting agendas. These investors will be part of the Centre’s Steering Committee and will play a leadership role in Centre meetings.
Lead investor ($50,000 annually)
Lead investors will help the Conference Board and Champion investors develop the research plan and review the research in progress. They will also suggest meeting topics and be invited to participate in Centre meetings.
Participant investor ($25,000 annually)
Participant investors will be invited to attend Centre meetings and will have access to the detailed research findings. They will also provide input on the choice of research and meeting topics.
So. People willing to cough up between $25K = $100K every year get to
- set the agenda
- choose which questions get asked and which don’t
- and have access to the research findings.
Anyone else find it hard to believe that the Conference Board of Canada will live up to their stated commitment of being:
- “The foremost independent, not-for-profit, applied research organization in Canada.”
- “Objective and non-partisan. We do not lobby for specific interests.”
I call bullshit. But I’m guessing the final document and research findings will be presented with little mention of who actually drove the whole project.
I dunno. I guess I thought we voted in MLAs every few years to, you know, set the agenda and direction for the north. Clearly I am mistaken.
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Being that we’re a territory, our MLAs hardly set the agenda and direction for anything. Lucky, too, consider what a bright bunch they are.
@Mondgoose But the thing is, we *elected* them. They are the people we have chosen to set direction. If they’re not doing it clearly enough, it’s our job to hold them to account, or vote in someone else But as a citizen, I certainly don’t want to abdicate that responsibility and download it to a bunch of folks with cash in their pocket (not that I object to cash in the pocket per se! I just don’t want us to revert, de facto, to the days before democracy!)