Editorial — Poor choice of words caused council tiff

THURSDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — The unfortunate disagreement in Kamloops City council chambers over the issue of a new public comment period on the Ajax environmental permit application illustrates the importance of how we use language.

Coun. Donovan Cavers, reacting to a letter from a senior civil servant with the B.C. Environment Ministry, remarked that the individual was as “incompetent” as the whole department.

Mayor Peter Milobar objected to what he called “character assassination.”

If we isolate these two references, we can see how the whole thing could have been avoided. To do that, we have to set aside any opinions for or against the Ajax project so as to remove the influence of emotion on our thinking.

The word “incompetent” means “lack of skills.” The civil servant, Scott Bailey of the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office, expressed the opinion that he doesn’t see a need for another public comment period but said his staff will monitor input and make a decision in due course.

Bailey makes his judgment based on the somewhat narrow parameters within which he and his office work — public comment periods at this stage of the process deal with  the factors that KGHM must cover off in its application. In Bailey’s opinion, the rather dramatic changes in KGHM’s site plan for the mine don’t impact that.

This is not a matter of competence but, rather, a matter of interpreting guidelines. One can feel free to disagree with that interpretation, or believe that more creative thinking would be desirable, but it’s not a matter of possessing skills.

As for “character assassination,” this wasn’t about anyone’s character. That word refers to a person’s moral and mental qualities. Those qualities are quite distinct from “competence.” They describe two very different attributes.

Thus, the argument that so divided council for a few minutes was unnecessary and misdirected. With the correct employment of words by all parties, it would never have happened.