The dance of governments; a new cabinet

A habit hard to break is to analyse the latest cabinet shuffle. I caved to my craving this week and did a historical analysis of Alberta department creations, merges, and dissolutions. Editorials on cabinet shuffles tend to focus on partisan and regional agendas. Have the North and South been equally represented? How about regional/rural? Is everyone's pet agenda represented? How about gender and generational representation? But my concern is prosaic. How is this change affecting the departments themselves? From my many years working as a civil servant, I know the shuffle of a few cabinet ministers results in a cascading effect resulting in the moving of 35,000 workers to new departments/ministries, new letterhead, different offices. Sometimes it's a simple matter of contracting some sign painters and slapping on a fresh coat of paint. Other times department merges are more like "Clash of Cultures" Version 17.0.

Here's a Mind Map diagram representing all the department changes since the province's beginnings in 1905. In it you can read our government's and province's shifting priorities over time. I'm hoping you can zoom in to the detail.

Solid departments like Justice, Education, and Agriculture have always been with us, with minor adjustments to their portfolio. The minors like Culture and Parks are added, dissolved, re-established, merged, and tweaked to suit the day's fancy. Flash-in-the-pans were here and are pruned back to where they came from or off the agenda altogether, like Gaming and Consumer Affairs. Sometimes splits are reconsidered and two departments are absorbed back to their parent department.

When I finally added the latest cabinet portfolio to my diagram today, I noted some highlights.

• The Status of Women get priority, not seen since 1938. 
• Public Security/Safety is no longer it's own concern. This seemed to be a particular agenda of our last two governments. 
• Children's Services similarly is absorbed in to it's parent department, though children do get a mention in the news release. And the Calgary Young Offender center is off the chopping block this week. 
• Persons with Developmental Disabilities is also absorbed and gets no particular mention in cabinet. Likely a result of a smaller cabinet rather than a shift in priorities. 
• Housing does not get it's own department either.
• And finally but not least of all, Sustainable Resource Development is all but gone. It's functions have been absorbed by Environment, Energy, and Agriculture.

Pairing Agriculture with Forestry is a new one, and here I predict a titanic clash of cultures. The departments serve a different clientele with very little overlap. Both are equally passionate; budgets jealously guarded. I'll enjoy watching the shakeup on that one.

Reference: 

A new chapter in the story of Alberta, news release, Government of Alberta, May 24, 2015
An Administrative History of the Government of Alberta, The Provincial Archives of Alberta, 1905-2005

The Enduring Bureaucrat, or, Everyone Needs Something to Do

Have you noted as I have how agencies, once established, endure well past their function? Consider the work of the foley artist.

This sound-effect job was birthed with radio, giving depth to radio drama, drawing the listener in to the action. With the advent of movies and television, though, the foley artist continued. Once a job is made, the enterprising continue to work hard to find their niche.

The same goes for the bureaucrat. Once graced with a budget, an enterprising bureaucrat will work hardest to justify his or her continued necessity, even perhaps at the cost of emerging needs. How does one go about disbanding an agency that has outlived it's usefulness? There will be protests and pain, for sure, as its supporters mourn it's loss.

An agency that may have outlived their origins for example, is the Victorian Order of Nurses (Florence Nightingale's practical nursing has proved itself more useful). In their history linked here, the VON use emotive language like "vital" and "treasure". Is there any service unique or valuable that the VON provide that could not be absorbed in to regular nursing? This is an example of an agency, budget, and bureaucracy that frankly, isn't needed.

Squirreling out obsoleted bureaucracies and agencies is one way to keep taxes low while improving service levels. This is not painless or simple though. There will be loud, emotive protests. This is the sort of activity that a new government may want to consider in the early days of their administration, before re-election looms.

Pleasurable Bagel

A bagel became the subject of a personal experiment this past weekend, where I used a mindfulness exercise over about twenty minutes, to eat several bites. I rate the experiment as a success, as the memory, texture, scent, alternate crispy and chewiness of the bagel and the warmth of the butter lingers on in my memory. Use of mindfulness is to extend the pleasure of a food by eating mindfully and in smaller quantities than I am used to. It's to prevent compulsive and mindless eating. 

I might try and repeat a remembered pleasure by eating ever larger amounts of food. Pleasure eating releases ghrelin. Volume does not increase pleasure however. So even if food is not inherently addictive, it is tempting to follow the addict's course and try and coax the pleasure hormones forth in ever larger amounts. But if ghrelin is depleted, there will never be food enough to get back that remembered pleasure. 

I've multiplied the pleasure while drastically reducing the quantity.

Planning started the night before, where I made some butter shells from unsalted butter. Room temperature for a lovely spread on the toast. 

 I timed and diarized the experience.

 When I draw, I become much more intimately involved with the object, becoming aware of subtle textures and highlights. This bagel has a pleasing rough crust from the egg wash.

 Buttered!

The bite used for the mindfulness exercise. There was a pleasing springiness. The crust, lovely to crunch down on. Because of the duration of the exercise, I became more aware of how the chewy center stuck to my teeth. Endured, really.

Here is the mindfulness clip I used. I realized in planning that with diarizing and capturing the experience, I could not afford to pause to read a script. So I used this YouTube. 

Try this yourself and see if your pleasure is not multiplied many times over, with less food. 

Case study of a Management and Recordkeeping Failure

Back in the fall of 2012 I watched a meat recall with interest. You might remember this one; it involved a large meat packing plant called XL foods located in southern Alberta. I was alerted when the company failed to respond promptly for a request for records. My "records radar" was activated, and I just knew that part of the issue had to be poor record-keeping and perhaps a failure of management as well.

The affected meat was identified and recalled within days, and the incident quickly faded from public interest. An independent review of the incident was quietly published many months later.

I finally got around this week to confirming if my instincts were right, and the review indeed validates my first instinct. It turns out this failure is a good lesson on the importance of not only following the letter of the law but the spirit as well. Good record-keeping and alert quality practices are evidence of a quality culture that can't be faked. Management and personnel throughout the organization must be committed to the principles behind our regulations, to prevent these sorts of incidents from re-occurring.

Internal Defect Phase

For two weeks leading up to the first failed test at the US border, internal tests at XL foods found four positive tests for e-coli. Quality Assurance protocols were followed, and the batches of tainted meat were removed. However, these tests (High Event Periods or HEP) should also have alerted the company that there was a systemic issue, requiring resolution. This would have been evidence of Quality Management at work. Testing and reporting are not only for compliance but for analysis and action. Perhaps there was action taken, but there are no records to indicate that there were. An alert company intent on excellence would have acted on these results internally and would have protected the company from the public embarrassment and losses that followed. They would have also documented their actions as evidence of their accountability.

External Incident

The next few weeks are marked by increasing external evidence of the failure, caught by watchdogs both at the US border and by the Canadian inspection agency. This led to increasing demands for action and information from XL foods. The XL Foods Quality Manager was ill-prepared to meet the increasing demands and was not able to produce information in a timely manner to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

Public Shame

Finally on September 16, thirteen days after the first tainted meat result caught by the US customs officials, the CFIA made public the failure and ordered a recall.

Failed Recovery

Over the weeks that followed, XL foods struggled to implement all the demands of the CFIA. In the meantime, production is slowed then shut down, employees are laid off, and any meat left in production is rendered safe (cooked) and disposed of. Finally on October 18, management of the plant is turned over to IBS foods which eventually takes ownership.

Conclusion
Management that values their reputation for quality will demonstrate their values by not only making sure that all those activities and reporting required by regulation are done, but by following up on any irregularities. If there is a testing and reporting protocol, analyse those results and follow up on any defects. Conduct root cause analysis on re-occurring problems. Keep current and careful records, and make sure plant staff have the information required to quickly locate batches in process.

Support teams do not operate in isolation. When an emergent issue arises, include key personnel throughout the company to build a team to help the Quality Manager to respond.

Once an emergency protocol is developed, have regular and effective drills to test that protocol and train staff in how to implement it. This could have prevented the chaos that followed and perhaps allowed the company to recover more quickly.

Independent Review of XL Foods Inc. Beef Recall 2012 Ronald John Lewis, DVM - Excerpts

(Chair) André Corriveau MD
W. Ronald Usborne, PhD
May 2013

We found a relaxed attitude towards applying mandatory procedures – clearly outlined in some documents, less so in others. Again, a shortcoming shared by both plant and [Canadian Food Inspection Agency] CFIA staff....In short, we found a weak food safety culture at the Brooks plant, shared by both plant management and CFIA staff.

The company's Quality Assurance Manager confirmed that turnover was some 30% each year at the Brooks plant.

Sampling spreadsheets studied by the Panel show high event periods (HEPs) very clearly. We found no indication that the company was identifying and analyzing those results for trends during the time leading up to the identification of the E. coli O157:H7 contamination; consequently, it was unable to make any efforts to establish and correct the root cause of the problem.

...the Panel reviewed sampling data as far back as January 2012, and noted a number of HEPs that should have resulted in root cause analyses by XL Foods Inc., but we have no evidence to suggest any analysis actually occurred. The company had established action limits at 10%, 20%, but there was no indication of how the action limits were linked to the sampling program.

XL Foods Inc.'s recordkeeping of monitoring activities and its validation of procedures and equipment maintenance were found to be deficient. In addition, sampling techniques were inconsistent. These shortcomings should have been identified by CFIA inspectors before the contamination event occurred.

The information first handed to CFIA was coded and could therefore not be acted upon by the regulator; product distribution information was kept at the company's corporate offices off site, which was slow to arrive at the plant. The company did not follow the recall section of the [Food Safety Emergency Protocol] FSEP Manual, which would have made the retrieval of records timely. During this lost time, contaminated product continued to be sold and eaten, unnecessarily exposing additional consumers to a potentially serious health risk.

Even after the regulator formalized its request in writing the following day, CFIA staff repeatedly extended deadlines for receiving the required data. Each day that passed before contaminated products were recalled allowed them to make their way further along the supply chain and into consumers' food baskets.

The XL Foods Inc.'s Quality Assurance Manager may have been unsure about which request was the most pressing, or was overwhelmed with the volume of information requested. It appears that he did not establish a team to assist with the work, and was determined to address these requests singlehandedly while continuing to perform his regular duties.

It is the Panel's view that equipment maintenance and sanitation were significant problems at the plant.

The fact that the company did not pay attention to increasing E. coli O157:H7 positive tests of beef trim had several consequences: it did not identify a high event period (HEP), it did not bracket product adequately, it missed contaminated products, and these then left the establishment. In addition, because plant staff was not reviewing sampling data, the HEP was not identified. Consequently, there was no attempt to determine a root cause, and the contamination continued unchecked until it was picked up outside the plant at Ginger Beef Choice Ltd. and the US border.

XL Foods Inc.'s Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system was neither applied nor managed properly. This is evidenced by the absence of detailed documentation, inconsistent trend analysis, insufficient record keeping on monitoring and validating processes and equipment maintenance, inconsistent sampling, etc. Annual quality verifications of inspection activities (a component of CFIA's Quality Management System) indicated that these were not delivered with scheduled regularity.

The six-day delay in providing this information – while the plant remained in operation and no root cause had been identified – meant that contaminated product continued to be produced and shipped from the plant.

3. Inspectors should devote proportionately less time to evaluating specimens for pathology and more time training on protocols that have maximum impact on food safety.
To improve the effectiveness of inspectors, CFIA should assess the specific duties their inspectors perform, with a view to evaluating the direct impact of these duties on food safety. More effort should be committed to evaluating trends, and assisting plant staff with root cause analysis when contamination is detected. They should also spend more time evaluating the thoroughness of cleaning and sanitation before shift start-ups.

5. The CFIA must enforce its oversight responsibilities at the plant.

Examples of these responsibilities include, among several others:

• ...
• As also required under FSEP, in the event of a recall, the plant must provide the Agency with distribution records for the recalled products that are complete and in a format that is accessible.
• Also in accordance with FSEP, the plant must include all of its standard operating procedures and good manufacturing practices in its own food safety plan.

http://www.foodsafety.gc.ca/english/xl_reprt-rapprte.asp

Timeline:

2009 -  XL Foods bought Lakeside Packers from its U.S. parent company Tyson Foods^[3]
2012, August 24, 27, 28, 29 and September 5 - the five dates where E Coli outbreak occurred.
2012, September 3 -  E Coli found in a shipment of beef to the US.
2012, September 4 - Canadian inspectors found E Coli during routine testing.
2012, September 7, XL Foods Inc. was formally requested in writing to produce detailed information related to product details, distribution, sampling results, and information on the effectiveness of the plant's preventative controls as soon as possible but no later than September 8.
2012, September 10, 1 - Pursuant to CFIA requests to XL Foods Inc. on September 6 and 7, information from XL Foods Inc. was provided to the CFIA in a series of submissions over two days.
2012, September 12 -  more E Coli is found.
2012, September 14  -The CFIA team completes review and reports that XL Foods Inc. must improve its trend analysis on high event days (periods when positive sampling tests are higher than normal) and follow documented procedures.
2012 September 16 - recall of tainted meat and public announcement.
2012, September 27 -  the plant is shut down because of the outbreak, until company officials “..have demonstrated that they have fully implemented CFIA’s required corrective action,”  Problems identified in a “corrective action” notice include employees touching contaminated meat without cleaning their hands properly and “water nozzles clogged in the primary carcass wash area.”
2012, October 18 - it was announced that the XL Lakeside plant was to be taken over by JBS USA for 60 days with "an exclusive option to buy the Canadian and U.S. operations of XL Foods".
2012, October 19 - The CFIA receives test results for the carcasses that the company processed between October 12 and October 17. Both CFIA and XL Foods Inc. test results for these carcasses are negative for E. coli.
2013, January 14 JBS Foods, Brazil, buys XL foods
2013, May - the Canadian Food Agency publishes an independent review of the XL Foods incident

CFIA Review panel:

They include Ronald Lewis, former chief veterinary officer for British Columbia; Dr. Andre Corriveau, chief public health officer for the Northwest Territories; and Ronald Usborne, a former executive with Caravelle Foods.

Related Articles:
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/information-for-consumers/food-safety-investigations/xl-foods-inc-independent-review-/eng/1370367689068/1370367776627

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/information-for-consumers/food-safety-investigations/xl-foods/timeline/eng/1349149063487/1349149874246

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa-launches-review-into-xl-foods-e-coli-outbreak-1.1358402

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/xl-foods-asks-to-resume-operations-after-e-coli-outbreak/article4596586/
 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/e-coli-outbreak-at-alberta-beef-plant-sign-of-a-system-in-overhaul/article4576587/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XL_Foods
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/01/09/jbs-buys-xl-foods-brazilian-company-alberta-beef-recall-ecoli_n_2443042.html
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/2012/10/08/alberta_meat_packing_plant_has_troubled_history.html

Talismans of Rememberance

Today's writing prompt asks if I carry any good luck charms?

There are cultures where the contents of the medicine bag are kept private, as that information can be used against the wearer. Who is my spirit guide? I'm not telling! But my personal traditions are different and I have no fear of these being stolen from me.

There are two items I wear nearly every day that have special meaning. The first is a topaz necklace, the inheritance from my mother last year. As grim as it can be tucking away a loved-one for the last time, this small gift has turned out to mean more than I could have imagined. Mom used to take it out at our visits, reminding me where she kept it and explaining that I was to make sure this keepsake and my sibling's were to be delivered where she intended. I hated those reminders when I visited, because I was far less interested in her death and her gifts, than spending time with her living self. But it sure was helpful when the time came to know of that envelope, where it was, and what mom intended.

I wear that necklace often, and it turns out to remind me more of all the good things that mom added to my life. This little necklace covers over bitter memories, leaving me comforted and at peace. A good and appropriate inheritance.

The other talisman is a Run Happy band from Brooks.

Kind of for obvious reasons. Running is part of my new life, and this silly band reminds me.

When to Walk Away from the Experts

I was challenged the other day over my decision to go through with Bariatric surgery, when it is entirely possible (in theory) to lose weight the "natural way" through diet and exercise. Indeed before I was approved for surgery, I had to demonstrate that I could lose weight on my own. And even though it sounds counter-intuitive, I will continue to lose weight and increase my strength and mobility through diet and exercise. The surgery is a boost but it is not an answer to significant and sustained weight loss.

I won't go in to all my reasons, but there was a mental switch that triggered, where I had enough of the conventional wisdom. How many times should a gal beat her head against the same wall, before she walks away from the wall?

I am reminded of another story of expert advice gone horribly wrong, in the story of the settling of the prairie dry belt in the book, "Empire of Dust: Settling and Abandoning the Prairie Dry Belt" by David C. Jones. When I was young, I learned in school that prairie farmers were partly responsible for the dust bowl because of poor farming practices. They cut down trees and deep-furrowed the loose soil which then blew away. All through my young life I watched farmers in our parkland, a little farther north from the dust bowl, faithfully plant tree lines around their property. This was the farmer's penance, to compensate for the ignorant practices of the past.

Then I read Jones' book and found out that the deep fallowing farming practices were the prevailing wisdom of the time.  Promoters and agrarian experts alike claimed that bumper crops could be gleaned from a land short of rain, solely on the moisture retained in the soil. Many farming families, hopeful for a new life, answered siren call of free land. The prairies were settled, then abandoned again, in huge numbers between 1909 and 1926.

Imagine a farmer following all conventional wisdom. Some years he experiences success. In dry years he loses it all again. He plants again in hope of a good year. He follows the "Campbell Method" ever more finely, believing it must be somehow a failure in execution. Sometimes he succeeds and he believes again. Then drought follows drought in successive years. Finally he is exhausted, destitute and entirely driven from hope. To save his family, he packs up and quietly leaves, indebted, the fallow land left in the hollow hands of the banker. For the farmer, his former faith is fatally snapped by reality. To survive, he must launch out on his own wisdom, taking an untrod path, and holding his breath that he and his little family will survive.

It boggles my mind that even today, this failure is left resting on the shoulders of the poor farmer, who was simply following the experts.

There's a time to step back and admit when a pet method simply does not work. There is no shame or failure in trying something else. It may be the only way to survival.

When it comes to weight loss, it is possible to simplify the whole process to a matter of Calories In - Calories Out (CICO). It does come down to this. Logically, if a person is gaining at a certain calorie intake, the only way to lose is to reduce the intake or increase the burn. Eventually the energy deficit will reap the expected result, as the body can't be built on air alone. But for some reason, some people seem to be able to eat more and still lose weight, while others struggle. Why some fail is baffling. Are they measuring their food wrong, failing to log all their entries, closet eating, or messing up their metabolism to such a degree that they require a dangerously low calorie intake? The dieter is left to blame.  She follows the instructions ever more finely, believing it must be somehow a failure in execution. Finally she is exhausted, entirely driven from hope.

I smell an expert failure. There are factors at play yet left undiscovered.

Oh, and in case this story has you wondering, I'm hopeful. The surgery went well, I have very few food intolerances, and I am close to achieving a weight target that will take me out of the obese range.

Privacy and Emergency Contacts

The unthinkable happens, and an employee is injured on the job - after hours - and is being transported to the hospital. (Let's call our unfortunate, Fred). In a safety culture, the first goal is to prevent the unthinkable, but if such a thing were to happen, are we prepared to provide support and information in those first critical hours?

I'm talking about personal private information and the workplace. There is an exception to disclosing private information without direct consent in cases such as Fred's accident. Human Resources or Payroll typically collect this information on hire. Exceptions to direct consent are typically written in to the regulations to allow for quick disclosure of this information, to Fred's "In Case of Emergency" (ICE) contacts.

"If a reasonable person would consider that it is clearly in the interest of the individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way (for instance, emergency contacts)" - A guide for Businesses and Organizations on the Personal Information Protection Act, Rev. November 2008 (p. 27)

Typically this information is kept on the employee file, and is collected in the first few days on the job. There are a few things to consider, however.

1. Is there a plan in place (say, annually) to confirm and update the emergency contact information?
2. Is there a contingency in place to access this information after hours? 
3. Do the supervisors know about this contingency plan?
4. Is there continued protection of this information from unauthorized access? 

But what if we asked a broader question; can the employee self-manage their ICE contacts through a tag or on their cell phone, while still protecting their privacy rights? Paramedic Bob Brotchie began promoting the saving of "In Case of Emergency (ICE)" information on cell phones in 2005. His idea gained international attention as a result of the London terrorist bombings that year. The idea is to include emergency contact names in the phone directory (i.e. last name ICE) so that an emergency responder can quickly work out who to call. This has become a little more complicated as most phone screens now lock, but new apps have filled the need. 

The apps available have gone steps further including personal medical information, allergies, and so on. Keep in mind however that for emergency responders, wealth of detail hinders rather than helps their cause. Having an emergency contact to call (who can fill in on existing conditions, allergies) is of primary importance. 

Bob Brotchie has endorsed an ICE tag made in Canada that bypasses apps altogether and provides a durable tag that can be attached to a keychain, backpack, running shoe, or helmet. All that is included on the ICE tag is two contact names with phone numbers. Nothing else is disclosed.  http://iceincaseofemergency.ca/

An employer may offer such a tag to employees who work off-site and after hours, that they could voluntarily manage and update as necessary. This eliminates the privacy, currency, housing, and accessibility concerns of the traditional emergency contact form maintained on the personnel file.

Further reading:

Federal Privacy Emergency Kit
https://www.priv.gc.ca/information/pub/gd_em_201305_e.asp

Information Sheet No. 5: Personal Employee Information
http://servicealberta.ca/pipa/documents/InfoSheet5.pdf

Evaluating apps:
When selecting a health-related app, pick one where the developer is open and transparent about their privacy policy, is specific on what information is being collected and how it will be used.  Ten Tips for Communicating Privacy Practices to Your App's Users