Why is public always the last to know?

Letting the public in on what’s going to be done with our tax money, what’s going to be done to our environment, and what’s going to be done with our cityscape seems to be a lost art these days.

Put another way, the public is last in line.

Thursday, the Interior Health Authority and the Thompson-Nicola Regional District sat down to talk about a new master plan for Royal Inland Hospital.

It was all hush hush, behind closed doors. Legally, planning matters can be discussed in secret, though there’s usually no good reason. Eventually, the public will be let in on it.

It’s a strange thing, this practice of politicians and bureaucrats figuring out what they’re going to do with our money, in the privacy of their meeting rooms.

Not surprising coming from the IHA, the most anal organization extant when it comes to message control. It could give Stephen Harper a run for his money on that count.

But the IHA isn’t alone. Before City Hall released anything comprehensive on the Lorne Street parkade, staff were making the rounds of business groups to get them onside.

And long before last week’s public meeting on the behemoth Ajax mine plan, company officials were quietly talking with business organizations and politicians.

There are advantages, from the proponent’s point of view, to this strategy of lining up ducks before the hoi polloi are let in on the secret.

It’s so much nicer to stand in front of a public meeting, or to issue a press release, knowing that you’re not going to get pushback from community leaders.

Maybe IHA has learned from past mistakes, especially after it moved administration of Royal Inland to Kelowna without telling anybody, prompting Mayor Peter Milobar’s famous utterance of the B word.
Municipal politicians get cranky over such surprises, and one can’t blame them. But there’s a difference between a proper head’s up to local authorities and giving them advance briefings on what should be public information, all the while strategically pledging them to silence.

The only way this new culture can be stopped is if business groups and local politicians say no, we will not agree to a secret meeting unless it specifically comes within necessary in-camera guidelines. If you want to talk about public policy, tell the public about it.

At the moment, there’s nobody in local public office willing to stand up and be counted on that score — it’s so much more comfortable going with the flow.