Limelight on mediocrity By Marcel Côté I have often pointed out governments’ difficulties in providing quality services to consumers. The fault lies not with civil servants trying to do their jobs, but with structural constraints imposed on governments. Monopolies subject to bureaucratic red tape are the worst. Airports are excellent places to observe this situation. The airport problems start with the local airport authorities established a few years ago to manage city airports. Across the country — Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver — major airport construction projects sprang up. Most went over budget and past their deadlines. But what does that matter? Travellers and airlines do not have a choice and are footing the bill. Airport authorities retort that after decades of govern-ment neglect, major capital investments were necessary. But did it justify an investment of almost $10-billion? Monopolies with taxing powers have difficulties avoiding empire-building, which leads them to disregard customers and their more modest needs. Indeed, travellers who now have to walk hundreds of additional metres in new airports surely have a special thought for airport authorities’ megalomania. Such fiascos at community-run agencies show that poli-ticians and civil servants don’t have the corner on government waste. Placed in a similar situation where they too are monopolies with taxing powers, local agencies, most headed by representatives of the business community, are not faring any better and users will be left holding the bag for decades to come. The pill would be less bitter, however, if with-in these sparkling airports, two new federal agencies did not remind travellers of the govern-ment’s ineptitude at pro-viding services. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) scre-ened 40 million passengers last year, intercepting 600,000 prohibited items. CATSA gives the impression that the extensive control checkpoints at airports makes planes more secure, which is only half true. There are more effective and less intrusive measures to reduce terrorism risk in airplanes, such as locking cockpit doors. The CATSA sieve has big meshes: terrorists still have access to an array of noncontrolled weapons, from forks to broken bottles, in addition to prohibited items that get through security. In fact, check-points play a miniscule role in preventing terrorism. Moreover, with simple security measures, such as ensuring that baggage travels with passengers, planes are not as easy a target as a sports arena or subway. However, since airline security rules are now effectively dictated by the US, where security often rhymes with imbecility, Canada must follow suit. But there is no reason CATSA could not do its controls more intelligently, with a focus on customer service. There is nothing more discour-aging for passengers than to see agents busying themselves around their machines, talking to each other, while waiting lines get longer. If CATSA were to concentrate its efforts on optimizing passenger flow through its control gates as it does on counting the nail files seized, travellers wouldn’t be so frustrated by waste of time and money. At times CATSA seems more interested in im-pressing the US authorities than Canadian travellers. How-ever, each of the 100,000 daily travellers walking through security gates has plenty of time to observe the poor customer service provided by CATSA agents. The second new agency, the Canada Border services Agency (CBSA), regroups customs and immigration agents. This 10,000 force mans Canada’s border crossings and provides evidence about public agencies’ struggles with efficiency. Why does it take less time to screen Canadian pas-sengers through immigration in Europe than here? How long does it take to recognize a bona fide Canadian? But beyond the time it takes to process a traveller, one can also question customer service. Take as an example the absence of agents on arrival at airports. CBSA can predict passenger arrivals at control checkpoints, so why can’t agents be at their stations? This is a mystery of bureaucratic inefficiency. Canadian air passengers can daily appreciate the dismal performance of government monopolies in providing services. CATSA and CBSA succeed in making our demonized airlines paragons of quality service by demonstrating there is worse out there. That achievement is a national shame, paid by all of us. Marcel Côté is a partner at SECOR Inc. in Montreal