About two and a half years after McKay joined the Foundation it was turned into the N.S. Research Foundation Corporation with a mandate which over the years gradually brought it more and more into conflict with private industry in N.S. Some geophysical companies objected to the existence of the Geophysics section of the NSRFC around the mid-1980s and it seemed likely that this section would be phased out. McKay took significant steps to move into other activities (see attached letter of 17 Feb 93 to Mr. Streatch) but received little encouragement to do so from the NSRFC hierarchy. Committees which were supposed to be looking at new initiatives inevitably were dominated by the existing Director of Geophysics who appeared more concerned with preserving the remains of his empire than with allowing his subordinates to pursue other activities.
The opportunity of work in Japan for a year (funded entirely by Japan and by McKay) took McKay away from the N.S. scene on leave of absence (without pay from N.S.) in 1990-91. Despite some enthusiasm from some members of the N.S. community (Dr. Savage among them - see letter from him as Mayor of Dartmouth), NSRFC seemed to care little about the potential of McKay's award. While in Japan, as a guest of the Science & Technology Agency of Japan (directly under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister), McKay had the opportunity of working with the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, now noted as an international affiliate of the Canadian Technology Network in which NSRFC/Innovacorp claim membership, and was asked by his host institute if he would like to extend his visit for a second year (an idea which he refrained from pursuing only because of some concerns about the continuity of his children's education in Canada).
On return to N.S., he found that NSRFC, despite assertions they had made about having stopped geophysical survey work in 1989, seemed to be carrying on with such work, and McKay was asked to look after both field operations and maintenance of a borehole logging system (of some importance for such environmental investigations as aquifer mapping, inter alia). During mid and late 1991, NSRFC, if belatedly, acquired a number of high performance Silicon Graphics workstations - computers of a standard capable of much wider application than the computer-assisted drafting for which they had been bought. McKay devoted a considerable effort into applying these to other uses. He also ran to earth remunerative contract work which would have kept him and others busy in fiscal 1992-93 (again see letter of 17 Feb 93).
Legal advice taken by McKay at the time of his layoff indicated that he had no option but to accept the actions of the NSRFC. First indications that something was fishy about the NSRFC position appeared when NSRFC indicated (letter from Mr. Nickerson to Dr. Prior in Oct 92) that they were still involved in geophysical work. The situation was exacerbated in January 1994 when NSRFC signed an untendered contract (in the amount of $70000.00) to do geophysical work for the Department of Natural Resources. Alasdair McKay did not learn about this contract until a few months later. When he did so, he decided that it was appropriate to contact the Ombudsman on the matter of his having been misled as to the true intentions of NSRFC. Mr. Connors' letter to the Ombudsman (August 94) indicates the failure of the Ombudsman to address McKay's concerns. Further inquiry by McKay into that situation revealed that, although the Office of the Ombudsman is empowered to inquire into the actions of provincial government agencies in employment matters, its current policy and practice is not to do so.
Only the more important correspondence about the above matters is included in this hypertext document. In total there are at least twice as many letters as are presented here. McKay is happy to make others available.