Goal Diggers Don't Take Government For Granite

Panning for Purpose, Prospecting for Progress, Striking it Rich in a Golden Age of Prosperity and Good Government

… Goal Fish

I thought the HRM Budget Committee headline this morning was funny.

Aren't all fields "all-weather" fields?

Maybe I should mine my own business here. I have no claim on any of this but I am curious to dig into the article.

This is $2.3m added to the original estimate of $4.9m. Bringing the cost estimate of this all-weather field to $7.2m. Not the final cost but the estimate to get a bid going.

That’s serious money and maybe making a solid gold joke in the headline because of the Waverley connection is too elementary. I just don’t want to take any of this for granite. But maybe a 24 Karrat gold metaphor will help us see through the darkness of Municipal Government.

Pulling on Any One Thread Can Unravel The Whole Blanket

I’m not picking on this field of dreams. It’s just a typical Municipal move. But if we stop and carefully pull on any one thread we can unravel the whole blanket. We can get at the real problem with our mega-municipality and we can apply better thinking to convention centres, stadiums, big events, and any of the big box mega-municipality magical thinking that saps our economy, reduces our productivity and enslaves the rising next generation to both live in this mess and pay for it all.

One of the councilors on the budget committee - an expert accountant with professional skills in budgeting, finance, and the management of public money said... just kidding, it was Sam Austin, a bike lane booster and urban evangelist whose only other job was as a professional money spender in the depths of the federal department of public works - Sam is quoted as saying, "In for a penny in for a pound."

The saying "in for a penny, in for a pound" is the rallying cry of gamblers, fools, and stubborn romantics who can’t cut their losses when the writing's already on the wall. It's the linguistic equivalent of doubling down on a bad hand at the poker table—encouraging us to throw good money, time, or effort after bad simply because we’ve already started. It assumes momentum has wisdom, when in reality it’s just inertia in a fancy hat. If anything, it’s a cautionary tale wrapped in a proverb: a reminder that knowing when to quit is the real art of the deal, and sometimes the smartest move is to leave your penny on the table and walk away.

I'll offer a revised saying. "Don't stick with your mistakes just because they cost a lot of money and you spent a long time making them."

Similarly, the committee worked through another 20 projects and politely used Austin's same logic, he is the senior councilor after all, to approve another $69 million in spending.

Community leader and Councilor Cathy Deagle Gammon (Waverley-Fall River-Musquodoboit Valley), whose district (sidebar comment: This district is not a natural community and in my view unfairly lumps together great communities with very different visions) includes the new field, said the quotes received were accurate “to the extent of what they knew at the time. After the detailed design was done, they realized they had to change a water line, they had to change a sewer line, where the goal posts were going to be meant they had to change a power pole.”

So, in other words, the excuse was that someone literally moved the goalposts on them.

What is the goal?

When I read stuff like this my mind goes to basic mental models that I can not remember a time not having. They were constantly repeated around my house growing up. The main one was, "What are we trying to achieve here?"; meaning what are our first principles? What is the goal, the literal thing that all this is supposed to achieve?

Great insight on the need for the all-weather field was offered by Coun. Billy Gillis (Lower Sackville-Beaver Bank) said the project will support the community as a whole and “a lot of people will benefit from it.” Billy is a big sports fan and worked as a construction foreman before being elected to council this fall.

Now, I don't want to put words in the man's mouth, and let’s put aside the fact that risk management and other fear-based concerns have made school properties from auditoriums to fields strictly out of bounds to community culture and general use for a generation, but I think what he was trying to say is that the ultimate goal of spending over $7 million to build an all-weather sports field at a high school can be distilled into its core intentions and values:

1. Providing Opportunity

At its most fundamental, the field aims to give students and the community access to a high-quality, durable sports facility that can be used year-round. This creates opportunities for physical education, organized sports, and community engagement, which might otherwise be limited by weather or existing infrastructure.

2. Fostering Physical and Mental Well-being

The investment seeks to promote physical health and mental resilience among students by encouraging activity and teamwork. Sports fields are arenas for discipline, cooperation, and self-confidence, which have ripple effects on academic performance and personal growth.

3. Enhancing School Pride and Community Identity

A state-of-the-art field can serve as a rallying point for school spirit, fostering pride among students and alumni while strengthening ties to the broader community. It's an investment in creating a sense of belonging and shared purpose.

The question, always unasked and unanswered in these types of proceedings is, what are the alternatives and is this the best way to achieve our goals.

Let’s really sum it up. What is the goal here?

In management my famiy’s old “what are we trying to achieve here?” is called the "Five Whys" technique. It's a problem-solving method used to explore the root cause of an issue by asking "Why?" repeatedly, usually five times, though the number can vary. Each subsequent question is based on the answer to the previous one, digging deeper into the underlying cause.

5 Whys Analysis

1. Why are we building a $7 million all-weather sports field?
   To provide opportunities for physical activity, sports, and community engagement.

2. Why is providing these opportunities important?
   Because they promote physical health, mental well-being, and social skills.

3. Why are health, well-being, and social skills important?
   They help individuals thrive, succeed, and contribute meaningfully to society.

4. Why is helping individuals thrive and succeed important?
   Thriving individuals create a stronger, more cohesive, and resilient community.

5. Why is building a stronger community important?
   A strong community enhances quality of life, fosters a sense of purpose, and prosperity, and ensures long-term societal progress which is the foundational good of any society.

Conclusion: The core goal is building better people and a stronger community.

At its core, the investment in a $7 million all-weather sports field is about building better people and a stronger community.

By creating a space for opportunity, well-being, and connection, we aim to empower students to grow into healthy, capable, and engaged individuals who can contribute meaningfully to society. It’s about fostering connections, resilience, and pride—not just in students but in the broader community. Ultimately, this isn’t just a sports field; it’s an investment in human potential, collective identity, and the long-term social fabric that binds us together.

So, the goal is to build better people in a stronger community.

Now we can stop and start again with a brand new plan. We can ask ourselves, what is the very best way, what are the best investments of time and capital we can make, to build better people and a stronger community?

Let’s Stop and Start Again with This New Goal In Mind

Now that we’ve clarified our ultimate goal—building better people and a stronger community—we need to ask ourselves a bold but necessary question: Is a $7 million all-weather sports field truly the best way to achieve this?

Instead of proceeding out of momentum or tradition, we should take a step back and consider the full range of possibilities. If the goal is to empower individuals to help, foster well-being, and strengthen community ties, then let’s put all options on the table. Could the same investment support a wider variety of programs or facilities that touch more lives? Could it be used to enhance existing infrastructure, offer scholarships, fund after-school activities, or build multi-use spaces that cater to diverse needs beyond sports? Nova Scotia, like Canada in general has a track record of progress, purpose, and prosperity built from working to raise up the poorest and most vulnerable among us, to try and bring more people into life’s golden circle that we sometimes call The Middle Class, The Community, Success by any other name. Maybe that’s a better track to continue along.

Let’s Always Be Ready To Stop and Begin Again

Stopping doesn’t mean abandoning the idea—it means respecting the scale of the investment enough to ensure it’s the smartest, most impactful way to achieve what matters most. Let’s reset, refocus, and challenge ourselves to come up with the best possible use of this opportunity to invest in the future of our community. After all, the true measure of success isn’t the field we build, but the lives and community we improve.

The Role of Process in Community and Government Decisions

Process matters profoundly in decisions like these because it determines how priorities are set, how resources are allocated, and whether the resulting actions truly serve the public good. When decisions are presupposed—like assuming a $7 million sports field is the best option—alternatives and the fundamental why behind the decision are often overlooked. This leads to a lack of creativity, accountability, and alignment with broader goals.

Why Clearly Stated, Well-Understood, Actionable Goals Matter

1. Focus and Alignment:
   Clear goals provide a compass for decision-making. When everyone agrees on the overarching aim—such as "building better people and a stronger community"—it’s easier to evaluate whether a proposed solution aligns with that aim. This avoids the trap of chasing popular or politically expedient ideas that may not deliver meaningful results. It also roots out nefarious, mischievous, interest-conflicted, and simply incompetent thinkers and helps us - politely - contextualize them in the decision mix and weight their perspective accordingly.

2. Encouraging Alternatives:
   Clearly articulated goals open the door to exploring diverse approaches. By focusing on the end goal rather than the presumed solution, stakeholders are more likely to ask, What other ideas could achieve this goal better, faster, or more affordably?

3. Accountability and Measurement:
   A well-defined goal creates benchmarks for success. It allows communities to measure whether the chosen solution delivers on its promise, fostering transparency and trust in the process.

4. Resilience to Groupthink:
   When goals are explicit and well-communicated, it’s harder for default assumptions or institutional inertia to dominate. This encourages critical thinking and debate, leading to better, often harder, decisions that truly serve the community.

5. Legitimizing Doing Nothing:
   Sometimes, doing nothing or delaying is the best option. A process that starts with goals allows for the possibility of determining that current conditions or resources aren’t right to achieve the goal effectively. Earlier, I mentioned professional money spenders. Bureaucracy by its nature is like this. It gains momentum, power, control and wealth, by growing itself. Maybe the most important task of any mature democracy and the citizens we elect to represent our interests is to keep this natural tendency in check.

How Goals Lead to Better Decisions

By grounding decisions in clearly stated, actionable goals, leaders can engage stakeholders in a process that is:

• Inclusive: Welcoming input and debate from diverse perspectives.

• Deliberative: Considering multiple alternatives, including doing nothing.

• Focused on Impact: Choosing paths that maximize alignment with the ultimate aim, rather than defaulting to the most obvious or politically palatable choice.

The Hard Part: Embracing the Challenge of Trade-offs

Clear goals make the trade-offs explicit. A $7 million sports field may sound appealing, but in light of "building better people and a stronger community," the decision becomes tougher. Should the same funds support multiple smaller initiatives? Should they target different age groups or needs? Adding complexity: how does the multilevel funding from the different levels of government impact the decision? How do risk management and fear-driven rules that cut most people off from using public resources and assets change the opportunity? These are hard questions—but they’re the ones that lead to smarter, more impactful decisions.

Goal-oriented governance isn’t just about spending decisions—it’s about having purpose. When we focus on the why behind every investment, we transform decisions from transactional to transformational, ensuring every dollar works harder to move us toward goals like building better people and stronger communities.

In Economics, which is really just the study of where our true wealth comes form and where it goes, the biggest mistake is not really considering the long-term consequences of things, and not considering the impact decisions have on all groups of people and all ways of looking at a thing as we decide where our limited resources will go. Always moving together toward clear goals helps to keep us moving toward better economics.

The power of government lies in asking bold questions, like, “What’s the best we can do?” and being brave enough to change course when the answers demand it. By putting purpose at the center, we move beyond good intentions and start delivering great outcomes.

Substack is a place to write longer notes. Consider this an invitation to correspond.