Former city councillor Glen "Moose" Scott calls them "three-dollar words."
Fancy words, or what George Orwell called "pretentious diction," creeps into everyone's vocabulary, particularly in the workplace where jargon takes over. In 1946, Orwell wrote in his classic essay Politics and the English Language to "never use a long word when a short one will do."
There are two "in" words going around among bureaucrats, business leaders and politicians in the region at the moment that are classic three-dollar words that Orwell would despise: procurement and remuneration.
This week, city council heard back from the committee charged with looking at the remuneration received by mayor and council. The Oxford Canadian dictionary defines remuneration as
"pay for services rendered." In short, remuneration is a five-syllable word that means "pay."
More than a few people suckered into using the word for months or years have been shocked and then deeply embarrassed to discover it's not "renumeration." Since it's a word associated with numbers and numerical things, why wouldn't it be "renumeration?"
Plus it's easier to say.
Committee chair Jim Blake apologized in his presentation to council Monday night for having such a tough time saying the word remuneration. No need to apologize for a word bureaucrats love to throw around to make lesser mortals (i.e. taxpayers, also known as the people who remunerate bureaucrats) feel stupid. Accountants and lawyers learn how to say remuneration in a sentence while in school. The rest of us, including the next committee appointed in four years, should be asked to consider the pay rate for mayor and council.
Procurement is equally annoying. The word, as currently used in boardrooms and business meetings, means "the act of buying or purchasing, especially by a government," according to the Oxford Canadian dictionary. Once again, an inflated, difficult-to-say word which, in this case, means "buying." Too many important people in the community and across the region would rather say "procurement process" (perhaps they love the alliteration?) than to say "buying."
Maybe these folks would stop using the word procurement if they knew of its connections to prostitution.
Section 212, 1a of the Criminal Code of Canada reads: "Every one who procures, attempts to procure or solicits a person to have illicit sexual intercourse with another person, whether in or out of Canada... is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years."
Justice Minister Peter Mackay must wince every time somebody at the cabinet table talks about the procurement process for a federal project.
In the Queen's English (and in her dictionary), a procurer is someone who obtains the services of a prostitute for another person. The more common phrase used by Her Majesty's subjects is pimp (or madam, if the procurer is female).
There has been much talk of late about "procurement opportunities" for major undertakings, such as the 2015 Canada Winter Games and the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. Unless we're talking about sex tourism or worker "benefits," perhaps procurement should be left to the prostitutes and business and buying should be left to those in more reputable professions.
Joking aside, leaders in the public and private sector discourage interest from the public when casually throwing around words like remuneration and procurement. Besides making the casual observer feel dumb, the unnecessary vocabulary is an obstacle for citizens who want to learn more and get involved. Fancy words send the message that these complicated issues are above the understanding (and even the interest) of the majority of citizens.
Some might say we should leave the issues of procurement and remuneration to the professionals.
Let's not.
How about citizens make up their own minds about the buying practices of government and industry and the salaries of politicians and bureaucrats?
The meaning is the same.
Three-dollar words like procurement and remuneration used in the current context have little value other than to cheapen the language.
