Letter from Alasdair McKay to:
The Hon. Mr. Roland Thornhill, M.L.A., Dartmouth South.
and
The Hon. Mr. Ken Streatch, Minister of Economic Development.
.
.
17 Feb 93
.
Dear Sirs,
.
Since my last communications
with you, I have been back
to Japan (by courtesy of External Affairs Canada) and am glad to report
that my relationship with my colleagues at the Geological Survey of
Japan seems to be untarnished by my layoff by the NSRFC. As a result of my
recent
visit to Japan, my family expects to have a Japanese girl as a guest
for an extended period. She will be attending Dartmouth high school.
I have also identified potential work for either Hypercomp or an alternative
consortium of software-oriented companies as subcontractors to the
Real World Computing project, whose research laboratories have newly
been established in Tsukuba. My former host researcher at the Geological
Survey of Japan is also applying for funds for cooperative work with
Canada in the field of deep-tow multichannel seismic identification
of seabed sediments, a field in which I am now advising E.M.R. Canada
and in which a patent granted to me in 1987 is
now generating its first royalties for its present owner.
.
I have had no reaction from you to my communications of a few
months ago. Perhaps this is because you are conducting enquiries into
the running of the N.S. Research Foundation, although it seems to
me that about the only person in the world with both the insight and
ability to conduct such an inquiry in a thorough and dispassionate
manner would be Paul Haule from East Africa. ( He spent several months
studying the NSRFC during 1991.) There are a number of issues which
should be addressed. I have had perhaps the unique experience of being
able to observe NSRF from three different standpoints during 1992.
I think it would be appropriate to advise you of these :
.
1. Standpoint of a staff member of NSRFC.
.
I had been aware for several years that NSRFC
intended to withdraw
from activities in geophysics. I had asked at various times since
about 1987 or 88 what sort of alternative direction was wanted. Through
my readings of financial & accountancy journals ( for a period of
several months after the arrival of the latest accountant at NSRFC,
I seemed to be the only person who read the library copy of the accountancy
journal "The Bottom Line") I realised that NSRFC, although financially
incapable of funding proper sabbatical leave, should still be able
to initiate a program which would allow staff members to fund such
arrangements themselves through an appropriately-managed plan of salary
deferral. I obtained information from various organisations such as
the N.S. teacher's union and from accountancy firms about this until
eventually the plan was put in place. At that time (ca. March 1988)
I applied to participate in the scheme, and
suggested that various
ideas from sabbatical-style periods at the Defence Research Establishment,
Bedford Institute or Dalhousie to starting on studies for a law degree
might offer possibilities for the diversion from geophysical activities
which the NSRFC management seemed to be wanting. This seemed to precipitate
a "chicken and egg" type of situation, in that it was difficult to
make arrangements with other local institutes when no commitment had
been given by NSRFC, and it seemed to be impossible to get a commitment
from NSRFC without a definite plan in place for a sabbatical. The
specific idea of legal studies met with what appeared to be quite
strong disapproval, when I had naively thought that it would be of
some help in drawing up the increasing number of business contracts
which NRSFC was involved with. That puzzled me then, but the passage
of time has made the reasons for the reaction only too clear. The
possibility of taking up a Fellowship with the Science and Technology
Agency of Japan came along in 1989 and resolved this seeming impasse,
but on my return in 1991, there seemed to be little or no interest
in trying to continue relations with Japanese agencies. That was why,
by early 1992, I had taken pains to continue to build on the knowledge
I had acquired in Japan about high performance computers and UNIX-based
systems because I knew that this would be fundamental to an Information
Section of NSRFC. In addition, I looked in my own time for ways of
continuing geophysics as a hobby, and while so doing, unearthed a
likely project in product engineering for Bedford
Institute - a project
which looked as if the construction part of it would be entirely appropriate
for NSRFC during 1993 or early 1994. For the more immediate future
in fiscal 1992-3, I had also found a very useful source of both revenue
and training for NSRFC (see 2 below). I have no idea why NSRFC had
no interest in these projects, one of which was quite definite (and
would have brought in on its own funds about equal to my yearly salary)
and the other of which seemed to have only its precise timing in doubt
(and would have been for a larger sum).
.
2. Standpoint of another Public Sector Agency.
.
I had arranged, through the Hypercomp Association, to gain further
experience in high performance computing by participation in their
training program and had ascertained that it would be acceptable to
Hypercomp if I and two others were seconded for 4 months each, during
which period Hypercomp would pay to NSRFC sums sufficient to cover
our normal salaries at NSRFC. The refusal to have anything to do with
such an arrangement seems to suggest an inability of the NSRFC management
to cooperate with another public-sector agency even in an instance
where there is an immediate financial benefit to NSRFC. This suggests
a very fierce hostility to other agencies. Such rivalry rather than
cooperation does not appear likely to be of benefit to the province.
.
3. Standpoint of an Entrepreneur.
.
After my dismissal, having been told that NSRFC had given up
geophysics, I embarked in the early summer of 1992 on a marketing
study of possible sales prospects in the U.K., thinking that I might
be able to fill some gaps left by NSRFC's precipitate departure from
the marketplace. I had a mixed reception, but there were some promising
contacts, particularly in Aberdeen. Judge my surprise to learn in
the early fall that NSRFC were still proposing to continue supplying
the same companies and had corresponded with them to this effect,
greatly reducing my own credibility with my potential customers about
the state of possible supply sources in Nova Scotia. Judge also my
feelings when I was offered a "spin off" of a manufacturing technology,
(with which I was largely acquaint before I came to Canada 20 years
ago), provided I offered a "reasonable sum" for a collection of odds
and ends which had not been properly selected for the proposed purpose
from even the miscellaneous residue which I knew had remained there.
The wording of this offer even seemed to suggest that I had to go
along with this as a condition of being 'allowed' to service the "NSRFC
customers".
.
Other Considerations.
.
NSRFC contracted with the Science and Technology Agency of Japan
to give me an appropriate leave of absence to take up a fellowship
with that agency during 1990 - 1991. My dismissal soon after my return
from Japan is scarcely consistent with this undertaking. To date,
I have refrained from contacting the S.T.A. about this. ( These are
rather remote officials, whom I met briefly, but with whom I never
had close contact while in Japan. The nature of the Fellowship arrangement
was such that the formal agreements and financing were dealt with
by the S.T.A., which comes directly under the chairmanship of the
Prime Minister, but that my working arrangements and close contacts
were on a somewhat more informal basis with a host agency - the Geological
Survey, which comes within the M.I.T.I. Agency of Industry, Science
and Technology.) However, I have already reported in good faith to
the S.T.A. on the satisfactory nature of the fellowship experience.
I think that it is necessary for me to file with them an addendum
to my report in order to correct what could be construed by them as
misleading, should they hear from some other source about the recent
goings-on in N.S., and I intend to do so in early April this year.
I will seek the advice and hopefully the approval of the Canadian
Embassy in Tokyo on the exact wording to be used because I have no
desire whatever to provoke even the mildest of ill feeling between
Japan and Canada.
.
I could go on about matters such as the failure of the N.S. administration
to suggest alternative positions in geophysics within, for example,
the NS Dept of Natural Resources (which is rumoured to have made
several term employees permanent recently) or about my internal application
some years ago at NSRFC to run the ACOA "Technical People in Industry"
program (for which a term person was engaged).
.
Although I do not approve of the display as being an apt measure
of R & D activity, I must ask why, among the sundry collection of
patents hung in the foyer of NSRFC (whether assigned to the corporation
or not) issued by people who have had some association with the NSRFC,
the Canadian patent number 1219944 does not
appear?
.
I look forward to your comments on my above observations.
.
Yours sincerely,
.
Alasdair McKay
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