I have received your letter of 6th October and have taken the trouble to contact your assistants to confirm that there has been no possible clerical or other administrative error in the issuing of this letter by your department. There appears to be no possibility whatsoever but that you stand fully behind this letter and that it is your last word on the matters which I have raised with you and with the earlier holders of your portfolio at various times - most recently in my letter of 31st May 1994 to which you responded earlier this month. I feel that I must make the following observations.
1. The continued involvement by NSRFC in geophysics is not an allegation, but a fact clearly documented both in publications and in a contract entered into by NSRFC in 1994. This contract, for work which I had as a private industry contractor solicited (in writing) two years ago, clearly demonstrates not only that NSRFC continued geophysical work, but did so under a remunerative contract in competition with private industry. I have discovered more recently that another private industry consultant also solicited this same work at about the same time in 1992 as I did.
2. This contract, contrary to what continues to be put about by your government (e.g. Dr. Savage's luncheon address to the ACOA Atlantic Showcase on 5th October), although for an amount of $70 000.00, was not put out to public tender. I note that your "thorough review" has totally failed to uncover this point. It is my understanding that the Geomatics Association of N.S., many of whose members are capable of carrying out the work and would have been interested in bidding on it, is now submitting a brief to Industry Canada on the matter of inappropriate contracting by public agencies, a brief which will in the first instance focus upon this very contract, not out of particular support for me, but because they are glad to have such a well-documented case to put forward as an example.
3. Because the contract let by Natural Resources (N.S.) is funded under a Mineral Development Agreement, I contacted the federal minister the Hon. Anne McLellan about the matter. She has confirmed that, under the terms of this agreement, it is the provincial department which is the "implementing party" and that the awarding of the contract is under provincial jurisdiction. Curiously, she also makes the statement, " I have been informed that proper contracting procedures have been followed" - a statement which she could presumably make only if she had been misinformed by some N.S. department about the way in which the contract had been let.
You also put forward the suggestion that a period of three years be considered a reasonable time span for the winding down of an activity which has spanned nearly half a century. It would seem much more reasonable to take the point of view that any senior managerial team with the vaguest semblance of competance would, in planning over such a long term, find not the slightest difficulty in redeploying long-term staff members to other tasks by suggesting suitable avenues for retraining and the like. In this context, I would also note that I made known around 1987 my interest in being told what new types of expertise would be welcomed within the NSRFC organization, instigated self-funding ideas to help staff embark on appropriate learning while on leave of absence, made known my willingness for change by applying for opportunities of internal transfer, took advantage of foreign funding for a year's work with the Japanese government (and could, merely for the asking, have extended that to at least two years had I been given some indication that this would be desirable), and on my return, explored new local possibilities with sufficient success that at the time of my dismissal, I had run to earth as much forthcoming remunerative work as most other staff members ( 12 person months certain - 4 of them for myself, and another larger project which was uncertain only in its exact timing). I did carry out part of this larger project - for the Geological Survey of Canada - after my layoff, but the bulk of the work, to the detriment of Canada's balance of payments, was not done in this country because I no longer had logistic support or, perhaps, credibility.
I would note that your present ongoing restructuring of the N.S. Research Foundation signifies in itself your dissatisfaction with the performance of that agency's senior management, which has, in addition to my above litany of complaints, so forgotten all sense of propriety as to set at nought a firm undertaking which it made to the government of a foreign power : namely its promise to the Japanese Science and Technology Agency that I would return to a secure job on the completion of my term as a guest in that country.
In April of 1993, Mr. Ron MacDonald, member of parliament for Dartmouth and a member of your own political party wrote to me in the following terms: " I want to assure you that I have read your letter and I am deeply disturbed by your experience with the NSRFC." Moved by this communication, I have been very slow to criticise the present administration of our province and I think you will agree, from past correspondence and from the amount of time which I have allowed to elapse, that I have given you every opportunity of sparing me the necessity of writing to you in such terms about actions which largely pre-date your term of office and which you had no need in the first instance to defend. That you have chosen not to take this opportunity is indeed most unfortunate.
Yours sincerely,
Alasdair McKay
copies to:
The Hon. Ms. Anne McLellan
Mr. Ron MacDonald, M.P.
The Hon. Dr. J. Savage
The Hon. Mr. D. Downe
Mr. T. Donahoe, MLA
Ms. A. McDonough, MLA