You know city politicians are either in a time warp or fresh out of new ideas when they start to dust-off social engineering blueprints from the 1980s. Once a lightening rod for social activism, employment equity has resurfaced as Mayor Glen Murray's flavour of the month, but this time with a $1.5 million price tag. Hey Glen, what gives?

Affirmative action went out of style ages ago with acid-washed jeans and Che Guevara T-shirts. What's next, declaring Winnipeg a nuclear free-zone 10 years after the Cold War?

The Mayor's Task Force on Diversity report has drummed up about as much enthusiasm as Murray's ill-fated garbage user fee adventures. There doesn't appear to be any groundswell of protestors clamoring for job equity policies and there's no need for it as well.

The authors of the report, ranging from a labour leader to an anti-racist activist, make a series of recommendations to favour hiring minority groups: "the disabled, Aboriginal, visible minorities, Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered, and women."

The report's pivotal assumption is that discrimination exists at City Hall. As proof, the report points to the low number of minorities in the work force. That's like saying the sun rises because the rooster crows.

Perhaps there are other variables to consider. For example, is discrimination the only explanation for the low proportion of women working in city sewers for a living?

In dealing with the intangible discrimination, the report makes vague reference to the "insidious and systemic" barriers "ingrained in our institutions, and in the minds of individuals." What institutions and which individuals they refer to remains a mystery.

The report leaves you wondering who are the bigots and racists at City Hall ensuring only non-disabled males of European ancestry get the jobs. And why do civic leaders put up with it? Go any deeper with this line of inquiry and you'll wind up at the Mayor's office. After all, isn't the Mayor ultimately responsible for the staff under his command?

Were the authors able locate the breeding ground of this festering discrimination, the task of rooting it out would be simple. Fire the bigots. End of story.

Because the authors haven't the foggiest notion where to begin, they cast the widest net possible and make the costly recommendation to force all 9,000 city employees to attend Ho Chi Minh--like re-education workshops on employment equity objectives, to the tune of a million bucks.

The training costs for city staff is just the thin edge of the wedge. The report ropes in the private sector as well with a recommendation to award government contracts to companies that comply with the job quota agenda.

The policy would be a disaster. Productivity would fall and costs would escalate for employers forced to hire from a narrower talent pool in an unemployment market that is fast approaching zero percent. Count on Joe-average taxpayer to get stiffed with the bill as the private sector passes along the job quota costs to the city.

If any discrimination is tolerated it should be directed against the report's costly recommendations and the colossal waste of money it is sure to incur if ever put into practice.