On my online news page I recently wrote about pedestrian safety walking around UBC's campus and perimeter roads. Most of the roads around UBC are managed by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI). So I reached out to a district manager who forwarded my request to their communications department without acknowledging receipt of the email. This is apparently standard operating procedure for MoTI (and other provincial government offices).
I had hoped to have a personable conversation to build out the story, to add a human element to the story in which a real person spoke to explain how their office worked, perhaps even learn about the full extent of their task as clearly UBC is only a small part of their job (which is headquartered in Surrey).
In my original story I named the district manager and suggest they had 'ghosted me.' However, after the story was published one of the communication staff called me up to explain the district manager had not 'ghosted me' me but had followed the provincial policy and had sent my request to the Communications and Community Engagement office to process. I shared with the comms staffer that “I appreciated their perspective that the district manager had not ignored me and that I understood their concern that their intention to reply had not been fully understood by me.” I also offered that it might be a nice idea to have acknowledged receipt of my email at the time it was received and to have advised it would be dealt with according to provincial policy for government workers.
So long and short of it, no personable chat with someone who actually makes decisions or has opperational authority. Instead I received the following statement which really doesn't say very much at all.
[1] Improving safety for people who choose cycling and other types of active transportation is a commitment of the government.
[2] The roads around the perimeter of UBC's Vancouver campus are mainly provincial public highways (except for private roads under direct ownership and management of UBC). While all provincial public highways are administered by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, the roads surrounding the perimeter of UBC’s Vancouver campus are managed by UBC, University Neighbourhoods Association (UNA), University Endowment Lands (UEL), or MOTI (depending on location).
[3]The ministry works closely with UBC and the UNA to manage provincial infrastructure for the safety of all users. Local residents are encouraged to speak with UBC/UNA for further information on jurisdiction or any issues or concerns that can be brought forward to the ministry if required.
The above statement can be broken into three parts (as I have done above for clarity).
Part one: high level statement of values. 'The government supports safety.'
Part two: a primer on the organizational structure at UBC. This is basic and doesn't add new information.
Part three: this is the key message, go talk to UBC or UNA, not MoTI. Put politely, it's a brush off (see, especially the portion I have underlined): that is, 'If you want to speak to MoTI, go through the channels.'
Hopefully one day I will get a chance to sit down and have a human conversation with the folks in MoTI. Putting a human face on the work that their office does seems something of importance to me. I can indeed appreciate how it is simpler to sit in an office in Surrey and run any discussion about UBC road through UBC and the UBC staff who speak with MoTi on a regular basis.
One of the problems we face as as society is a deep distrust in government and their intentions. This some story is a kind of demonstration of how a government wants to limit and contain a story and they do so by framing it in a bland and antiseptic statement of the obvious (plus a subtextual 'get lost'). Maybe if folks in power were less concerned with keeping tight control over things we would all be better off?
