🚀 go-pugleaf

Some of you may be wondering what ever become of the open letter I sent to
John Manley, Minister of Industry, concerning the manned part of Canada's
space programme.  Here is the complete sequence of letters so far (you
have probably already read the first one as I submitted it some time
ago... some of you may have read all of this except the last entry,
however, since there is still no answer from the minister in well over
NINE weeks, I decided to resubmit this news group entry).


(By the way, if you would like to add your voice to mine (at least SEVEN
people have so far done this) here is Manley's e-mail address: 
manley.john@istc.ca.  You may also leave comments for Mr. Manley at the
telephone number (613) 995-9001.  I certainly hope that many more people
do add their voice to mine - we don't want to wake up in a few months only
to find that Canada has dropped out of manned space flight entirely!!)

Here are the letters in sequence:

February 22, 1995

The Honourable John Manley
Minister of Industry
11th Floor East
235 Queen Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0H5

Dear Mr. Manley,

Re: Funding of Canada's Participation in the
International Space Station Project

        I am writing to voice my support for continued Canadian
participation in the international space station project.  After last
year's 61% reduction in our contribution to the project, any cuts this
year would be very embarrassing for both the government and our
country.  Many of my Canadian and foreign colleagues in the
aerospace community already feel that Canada is not pulling its
weight in manned space flight, leaving the bulk of the expensive and
difficult work to other countries.  While I have the utmost respect for
those Canadians who work in the space field, I have to agree with
these critics - as a country, we are not taking this part of our space
programme seriously.  In one of your letters to me last summer, you
stated that the new funding levels would "take us into the next century
in an era of space competence".  Frankly, I find this difficult to
believe.  How can we possibly achieve "space competence" when we
are devoting so little resources to the field?

        I recognize that your government faces an immense challenge
in its efforts to significantly reduce our  national debt.  There is
certainly no question that future generations of Canadians will be
very poor indeed if we continue to spend as we have in the past. While
part of the solution to this crisis obviously includes spending cuts and
tax increases, I'm sure you'll agree that this should not be done at the
expense of Canada's income generating capability. After all, cutting
programmes that generate wealth for the country would be akin to
quitting one's job so as to save on parking and clothing costs.  No
amount of short term savings in expenses would compensate for the
loss of one's income.  Yet, this is exactly what Canada is doing when we
cut such wealth and employment generators as the manned space
programme.  As has been shown many times, projects such as the
space station give far more back to the country in both tangible and
intangible benefits than what they cost.  Surely we will have little of
real value to pass on to future generations of Canadians if, in our zeal
to reduce spending today, we eliminate the very programmes that are
required to build a prosperous future.

        It would be easy to conclude that the government makes these
cuts simply because it results in the short term appearance of
progress in the battle to get Canada out of its debt hole.  However, like
quitting one's job to "save money", the government's current
approach is very likely to fail, ultimately resulting in an even worse
debt crisis at some time in the future.  This future crisis will probably
be much more difficult to get out of since we will have dismantled
much of our wealth and employment generating capability.  As I
discussed with you previously, a solid argument can be made for
increasing space expenditure at a time when we have such a large
debt.  What do you think about these ideas?

        Finally, you'll recall that in my correspondence with you last
summer I suggested that the government should be putting more
emphasis on the societal consequences of manned space exploration
when marketing the programme.  As I discussed, these ramifications
have been addressed in some depth by various social scientists who
have seriously examined the long term consequences of the
establishment of an interplanetary civilization versus one which
limits itself to a single world.  In your response of July 29, 1994, you
stated "I indeed share your point of view that the humans in space
component of the programme should be marketed in a way that will
focus more on social science ramifications".  I was very pleased to
hear this and would be quite interested to hear what progress has
been made in this direction during the half year since your letter.

        I look forward to hearing from you soon.

                                                       Sincerely,



                                                       Tom Harris
                                                Speaker -  Space Exploration
                                                       and Environment

        PS:  I have heard that, as a result of the recent cuts in Canada's
 contribution to the space station project, cabinet have effectively
decided that no Canadian astronauts will visit the facility once
construction is complete.  Is this true?  If it is true, how can such a
move be justified when we will have already put into the project most
of the funds required to regularly use the station?

        PPS:  Because many people share my concern for the fate of
Canada's manned space programme, I have decided to post this letter to
several news groups on the Internet.  In particular I plan to submit
this letter to the following news groups: sci.space, sci.space.policy,
sci.space.tech, sci.space.shuttle, can.gov.general, talk.politics.space,
can.schoolnet.space.sr, and perhaps can.schoolnet.chat.student.sr and
canada.general.  Besides whatever answer you send to me personally,
you may also wish to consider posting a follow-up on these news
groups.  I'm sure your answers to my questions will be read with great
interest.  In any event, I may post a summary of your response to this
letter on the news groups myself at some time in the future.


Here is John Manley's answer:



Date: Fri Feb 24 07:55:00 1995
From: CORMANLEY@ocs.istc.ca ("Correspondence Manley: OCS")
Subject: Funding of Canada's Participation...
To: bq627@freenet.carleton.ca



On behalf of the Honourable John Manley, we wish to acknowledge receipt of
your recent Internet message.  Minister Manley appreciates receiving your
views.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Next I sent the following letter so as to soften the blow of my first letter:




February 25, 1995


The Honourable John Manley
Minister of Industry
11th Floor East
235 Queen Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0H5

Dear Mr. Manley,

        Here is a quick update to my letter dated February 22, 1995.

        As you'll recall, I told you that I would be submitting my letter
to you to a number of news groups on the Internet.  So far, I have
submitted the letter to the following news groups:
        sci.space.policy
        sci.space.shuttle
        sci.space.tech
        can.gov.general
        ncf.federal-election.national
        ncf.general
        can.ai
        can.schoolnet.space.sr
        can.schoolnet.eng.sr
        ncf.sigs.living-in-space

        I have added a few notes to the letter and deleted the last PPS
when I entered the letter on each news group.  If you have a look at
#26435 on the news group sci.space.shuttle, you'll get a good idea of what
appeared on all of the other news groups as well.

        I apologize if the approach I have taken seems overly confrontational.
I understand that you had to fight mightily to preserve the remaining 39%
of the space station project's long term budget last year.  However, I am
very concerned with the dwindling funding of Canada's manned space effort
and, since your staff didn't take my letter of June 27, 1994 to you seriously
(ignoring the letter's only question), I had to try a different approach this
time around.  Besides, I know that many Canadians share my concern for the
future of the manned space programme and will be very interested to hear
your answer to my letter of February 22, 1995.

        I look forward to hearing from you soon.

                                                                Sincerely,




                                                                Tom Harris



Three weeks went by and, having received no further correspondance from
Manley, I then sent the following:



March 16, 1995



The Honourable John Manley
Minister of Industry
11th Floor East
235 Queen Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0H5

Dear Mr. Manley,

        Could you please tell me how my letters of February 22, 1995 and
February 25, 1995 (both concerned the funding of Canada's participation in
the international space station project) are being handled by your staff.
I would also like to know when I should expect a proper response.  As I
explained in my February 25th letter to you, my 1994 letters to you were
not handled to my satisfaction and consequently I sincerely hope that your
staff is taking my questions and comments more seriously this time around.

        Meanwhile, I would also like to know if you plan to post your
response to my letter on the various news groups that I mentioned in my
last letter.  If you do decide that posting a follow-up is the right way
to proceed, you may wish to consider asking your staff to send me an
e-mail message when your response is ready.  I could then re-post my original
submission as a new entry and your correspondence people could then post
your response right away.  Alternatively, I give your staff permission to
post my February 22, 1995 letter to you along with your answer together as
a single entry in each of the ten original news groups.  As I said before,
I
have told many of the people who have expressed an interest in my
submission (many of them communicating with me via e-mail from various
parts of Canada) that I plan to post a summary of your response if you
choose not to post the answer yourself.  Regardless of the route you
choose, I certainly look forward to reading your response.

                                                        Sincerely,

                                                        Tom Harris
                                                Speaker - Space Exploration
                                                        and Environment


And here is Manley's answer:



Date: Fri Mar 17 08:16:00 1995
From: CORMANLEY@ocs.ic.gc.ca ("Correspondence Manley: OCS")
Subject: Follow-up to my Letters of Feb 22 and Feb 25
To: bq627@freenet.carleton.ca



On behalf of the Honourable John Manley, we wish to acknowledge receipt of
your recent Internet message.  Minister Manley appreciates receiving your
views.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


..and so I sent the following:



March 19, 1995



The Honourable John Manley
Minister of Industry
11th Floor East
235 Queen Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0H5


Dear Mr. Manley,

        Could you please ask your staff to have a proper look at the
letter I sent you yesterday - the standard form letter e-mail response
does not apply in my case.


                                                        Sincerely,

                                                        Tom Harris
                                                Speaker - Space Exploration
                                                        and Environment





And here is Manley's answer:

Date: Mon Mar 20 16:06:00 1995
From: CORMANLEY@ocs.ic.gc.ca ("Correspondence Manley: OCS")
Subject: Re - Follow-up to my letters of Feb 22 & 25
To: bq627@freenet.carleton.ca



On behalf of the Honourable John Manley, we wish to acknowledge receipt of
your recent Internet message.  Minister Manley appreciates receiving your
views.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, I sent the following (with the subject title "IS ANYONE READING
MY LETTERS TO JOHN MANLEY?"):



March 22, 1995


The Honourable John Manley
Minister of Industry
11th Floor East
235 Queen Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0H5


Dear Mr. Manley,


        It has now been four weeks since your office received my
correspondence of February 22, 1995.  Since that date I have received three
or four (I've lost count) identical form letter e-mail responses.  None of
these form letters sensibly relate to the submissions I have sent you.

        Frankly, I'm starting to get the impression that no one is reading my
letters.  It seems that I am simply corresponding with an e-mail answering
machine which will probably respond to this letter in the same way as all
the rest.  If someone is actually reading this correspondence, please do
not send the same form letter again.  Instead, I request that you actually
read my submissions and, if your staff are unable to answer in an appropriate
fashion right away, at least let me know when I can expect a proper response.

                                 		Sincerely,

                                                Tom Harris
                                    	Speaker -Space Exploration
                                               and Environment



NOTE TO READERS OF THIS NEWS GROUP (as of April 28, 1995):

There has still been no answer to this last letter.  On Friday, March 31,
I telephoned Manley's office and was told that a response was currently
being prepared to my letters (they said it normally takes them eight weeks
to send out a proper response).  After quite a bit of pushing, I got the
staff member I was speaking to to say that I should be receiving the reply
in about two and a half weeks, or about April 18.  Of course, that was ten
days ago and still not a peep out of Manley's people - you'd never guess
that they work for us!  As I promised before, I'll post a summary of the
answer I eventually get if Mr. Manley does not post a follow-up himself
(assuming, of course, that they do eventually answer).

Ad Astra,

Tom Harris