“Inside every cynical person is a disappointed idealist.” – George Carlin

There is something in the Zeitgeist telling us to stop trusting in authority. It’s as though, as a generation passes-on, we are poking at the beliefs they held dear.

Sometimes this is a good thing, like moving from eminence-based medicine to evidence-based medicine, and sometimes it’s not, like with anti-vaxxers.

And when we trust those in authority to do the right thing, and find our trust misplaced, who do we hold accountable? That is the state of procurement today.

The unintended consequence of this movement seems to be the erosion of trust. We no longer trust institutions to do the right thing. We’ve seen too many instances where they protect their own ahead of the public good. For people in North America, this seems to have triggered a feeling that the people who represent these institutions are acceptable targets for contempt. See for instance the Michael Lewis podcast on NBA referees, or the virulent reaction to the Hilary Clinton email scandal.

The latest example is the news about the procurement of Ottawa’s stage 2 LRT; many members of the public had questions, many of which remained unanswered. Thanks to the diligent reporting by Joanne Chianello, those questions are still valid. Public trust has been eroded.

Click here to keep reading this blog and to learn more about Architects DCA

About

Architects DCA : A Group of Architects, is an Ottawa-based practice with more than 25 years of experience in infill development, labs, commercial design, & more.

www.architectsDCA.com