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Beware of lurking poop inspectors

Recently, some note has been made that a few Yukon placer miners are concerned about, what they feel to be, unnecessary and burdensome bureaucratic rules, regulations and red tape.

Recently, some note has been made that a few Yukon placer miners are concerned about, what they feel to be, unnecessary and burdensome bureaucratic rules, regulations and red tape.

Allow me to share another of these factual regulations, ludicrous though it may seem, as an example of their collective absence of common sense.

Do you realize that it is illegal for a miner to perform his morning dump without prior, signed approval from his government ? It’s true.

Before a miner can dig the hole for his one-man outhouse, he has to have a certificate from YTG’s environmental health.

Our own bureaucrats have determined they have the absolute power to dictate the exact location where they may allow that poor, old miner to take his morning dump. It’s true.

I hesitate to introduce common sense into this discussion, but: 1) mornings occur every day, like clockwork, and 2) nature must take its course. These are laws of nature that even our bureaucrats can’t control. (Thank Heaven for small mercies).

What is a poor old miner to do in the morning while he waits for his official “Poop Certificate” to come in the mail ?

The government must realize that they can’t create new laws and regulations without having an effective enforcement strategy in place.

What is the next step in the process? Could it be a brigade of jobs-for-life Poop Inspectors?

Should we expect to fear these Poop Inspectors, with binoculars, lurking in the bushes ?

What are the penalties if that poor, old miner doesn’t (or can’t) perform his morning dump in the exact spot our self-exalted bureaucrats have approved?

That’s going to be a pretty messy courtroom when the Poop Inspectors have to produce The Evidence.”

Of course this example seems, at first reading, to be ludicrous and silly, but it is the law.

Try digging your own outhouse hole without their prior approval. Try it.

By the way, where are the voices of our elected leaders in this discussion? They came to us all, begging for our votes, promising to represent our interests. It seems convenient that they have all scheduled root-canal work on the very day that a matter of public interest arises. Could it be that they are ‘scared-to-death’ of the powers of their own bureaucracy? Our elected voices are conspicuous by their absence.

Pierre Trudeau said: “The government has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.” Perhaps that could now be expanded to: “The YTG bureaucrats have no business in the outhouse of the hard-working placer miner.”

All it takes, for the excesses to the bureaucracy to prevail, is for good people to do nothing. If you see them come for the placer miner, and you stay silent, who will there be left to speak up when they come for you ?

Mike Laforet

Whitehorse