Educational budget cuts are arousing outbursts of rage across Canada. Dollar figures which are practically pregnant with zeros are emotionally linked with government cuts as if money were the only criterion for educational excellence. Would that it were so. Few nations anywhere, let alone provinces, have invested as lavishly as Ontario in education. On the evidence, it is clear that quality education is not just a matter of money.

I saw striking teachers, some of whom are paid extremely well to teach the beauty, as well as the basics of the English language, resorting to such loutish chants as: Hey hey. Ho ho. Bill 160 has got to go. Couldn't they have come up with a more erudite rhyming rhetoric to match their status as intellectual professionals? Strikers seeking metaphors for their next slogans might note that Harris Tweed, which does have a rather homespun look, is actually one of the most durable cloths in the world. But you cannot measure the effect of a man's policies by the cut of his cloth.

While much is being blamed on Mike Harris' cuts, the low bid ethos started long before the PC election two years ago and was prevalent under Liberal and NDP regimes.

The low bid ethos is currently having a serious effect on the quality of environmental engineering. Consulting engineers and suppliers are increasingly being trapped in a vicious cycle which is diametrically opposite to the quality education debate. While the teachers equate quality with funding, the purchasers of environmental goods and design service increasingly have a low bid mind set. Low prices have become the dominant factor in securing projects which require quality engineering. People should remember that environmental engineering is part of a learned profession which, no less than medicine, holds human lives in its hands.

Take fire hydrants for example. Even when they remain unused for years they are saving homeowners money with reduced fire insurance costs. Almost no one is aware of this. Some hydrant manufacturers produce high quality products backed up with dedicated service. Parts and technical assistance are available in the dead of night, often during week ends and holidays. One service representative was attending a church service when he was reached by a municipality with a broken main problem. Sure enough, he had a range of parts in his car trunk which later enabled crews in the water logged trenches to turn the slime into water. Divine service one might say.

Is the invisible value of quality service on this vital product always factored into purchasing decisions? I hope so. Does the public ever think that hydrant failure could cost thousands of dollars as well as loss of life?

In water and wastewater treatment, all too often clients cannot differentiate between low prices and high quality engineering which is not only designed to last decades but is often more reliable, has better treatment effectiveness and lower maintenance costs. Yet increasingly, municipalities and government agencies think that by squeezing engineering designers and equipment suppliers to the lowest possible price they are actually saving money.

A really good example of cost-effectiveness can be seen in front of the Toronto SkyDome. When the world renowned retractable stadium was being planned, it was found that the John Street water pumping station, built some 150 years ago, would be right under centre field. One option was to build the SkyDome directly over the pumping station which would have made the stadium about 20 feet higher than its present height.

A consulting engineer, working with the Stadium Development Corporation, and Metro Toronto engineers, opted to move the old pumping station. After some ingenious engineering work, this was achieved without loss of water service for a total savings of $10 million. Morever, the pumps, some piping and connections, which were almost 50 years old, were simply refurbished and are still working like new, a tribute indeed to the excellence of the equipment and engineering. This is a classic case of the value of quality engineering where professional ingenuity saved millions.

The variety and skills of consulting engineers fluctuate like seismographs with peaks and valleys of specialization and excellence and yes, brilliance. Engineering is moving so rapidly that today's parameters quickly become obsolete. Some engineers are brilliant, some mediocre in certain areas. But the increasing emphasis on the low bid ethos works like a fiscal grader, flattening the peaks of excellence and filling in the pot holes of mediocrity.

There are engineers and equipment suppliers who have striven successfully for energy efficient designs in treatment plants which recoup huge savings ­ perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars during the life cycle of projects ­ yet the selection process is increasingly being based on purchase price. What this will lead to is more conservative designs, and less emphasis on improving the effectiveness of process technology.

There could be more than money at stake. We now have lethal threats such as cryptosporidium which killed people in Milwaukee and Oxford, England recently as well as Giardia which can cause serious illness. Dr. Gordon Finch, P.Eng., writing in the September 1996 ES&E, warned that the comparatively new threat of waterborne parasites could not be controlled as easily as pathogenic bacteria and virusses. Another article in the September 1997 ES&E, warned of the introduction of new and possibly dangerous marine species entering our waterways via the ballast tanks of overseas vessels. One ship had entered the St. Lawrence Seaway with ballast water apparently taken from the Congo River in Africa. The mind reels at the potential threats which such ballast waters may contain.

Here too, the low bid ethos is ill suited to cope with newly emerging and quite possibly lethal threats to our waterways. What about analytical laboratories which examine potential threats in ballast waters? Certainly with so much at stake, I would like the best qualified laboratory to perform such analyses, not the one with cut rate prices.

The American painter Whistler, sued John Ruskin for writing that Whistler's Nocturne was like 'throwing a pot of paint in the public's face'. After learning that the painting had taken Whistler only a few hours to paint, Ruskin's lawyer sarcastically enquired of Whistler: "You ask 1,000 guineas for a few hours work?"

"No." Countered the painter. "I ask it for the knowledge of a lifetime." This classic response, made in the 19th century, could be an equally effective rebuttal to the low bid ethos as we head towards the millennium and into the 21st century.

E-mail: esemag@istar.ca