A technical problem prevented the Cameron Inquiry from delivering its report to the provincial government as promised on 28 February.
Okay.
That happens.
Government’s original plan was to release the thing publicly two days later, allowing time off for Sunday for the rest of us.
Again, fair enough. Compared to some reports which languish in government hands as “drafts” for the better part of a year or more, this is actually pretty good.
So how come government delayed the report release indefinitely once the technical glitch showed up?
It seems a pretty easy thing to release the report as soon as it is received. Government might not be ready to give all the answers right away but then again they wouldn’t have been able to do much other than figure out their starting position if they’d gotten it on Saturday. If the health minister is now dealing with something else, then at least tell everyone what is going on.
So why the extra hang-up?
It’s not like the Premier was originally planning to scrum on it anyways.
Get it out there and let’s start dealing with the report and all its details.
Hang on while we get in one last torque update: Delaying the announcement of a report into problems at Eastern Health and then announcing a new chief executive officer for the organization looks a bit like the sorts of issues management stunnedness that got everyone into the mess in the first place.
Is CRA still polling? Could explain a lot.
And then it’s on, again Update: The report will be released a day after it was supposed, given that it was received a day after it was supposed to be handed in.
And that couldn’t have been said before five minutes to three on Monday afternoon?
6 comments:
Per usual, there is more disinformation than facts. There are four extant (and somewhat contradictory) accounts:
1. The Official Media Advisory, 11:10 a.m. Sunday, which states, "Release of Cameron Inquiry Report to be Rescheduled...The Provincial Government HAS NOT YET RECEIVED the Commission of Inquiry on Hormone Receptor Testing report." (Curiously, this press release, dated 1 March, is now archived with the February releases).
2. VOCM, Monday, which states, "The provincial government
now has the report of the Cameron Inquiry into Hormone Receptor Testing. Commissioner Margaret Cameron presented an electronic version of her report to Minister Ross Wiseman YESTERDAY
....Government had expected the report Saturday, and planned to release it today. Some technical difficulties encountered at the Commission office on the weekend prevented that," i.e., its release though VOCM's syntax is never clear.
3. The Tely, Monday, which quotes the statement made by the Commission confirming that a) Justice Cameron did, in fact, deliver the report to Wiseman and b) the delivery of the report was delayed by just one day due to technical difficulties at the Commission Office.
4. CBC, Monday, which quotes Justice Camerson as having already apologized to Wiseman for "for any inconvenience caused by this delay." CBC also repeats the statement that *the decision of when to release the report* "rests with the government," though it adds the Commission's statement that "production of the report in paper format is currently ongoing, and expected to be concluded by Friday, March 6, 2009."
One possible explanation of the discrepancies in the accounts is that Wiseman received the report after the media advisory was posted last Sunday morning. But surely Wiseman would have known by then that the report was coming later in the day, as confirmed by the Commission itself. And Wiseman's office could have easily issued a follow-up media advisory after it received the report on Sunday.
Either there was yet another hapless communication breakdown, or Wiseman's office deliberately jumped the gun to create the false impression that it had no idea when the report was going to be submitted, i.e., creating the false impression that the Commission was somehow falling down on the job.
Secondly, if, as we now know, the delay of submission was a mere 24 hours, then it's entirely logical to assume that the delay of release would be no more than 24 hours.
The decision to release the report upon its submission has already been made and publicly announced; therefore, it's completely unclear, and rather suspicious, that the Goverment is now stating that it will have to make another, apparently separate decision on when to release said report at some unknown future date.
The issue of paper copies is a convenient red herring, since the entire report (or the executive summary, at the very least) could be easily posted online for public viewing.
Perhaps it's coincidental, but VOCM is now reporting (the official media advisory is already online) that DW has at long last appointed someone to run Eastern Health.
It's always difficult to determine whether Dangovt is incompetent or devious. A little from column A, a little from column B, I guess.
You tracked it precisely, Winston.
I expect that they will hang off for a bit on the release but when it finally does come the media line will be something like this:
"Thank you, Justice Cameron for all your hard work but we've already started to get beyond this unfortunate episode. We have the adverse health events task which we are already implementing and now there's a new CEO at Eastern Health.
So big changes.
Strategic changes.
Big. Strategic changes.
Already done.
We wanted to ensure this would never happen and again and we did already."
You're right that the delay and the excuses offered for it don't add up. I think we can now safely conclude that once they saw the report they realised it has some stuff in it that needed some pre-emptive action.
We got the first bit today with Vicki Kaminski's appoint for a job she'll take up in June.
Wow. They can't get reports out they've had for a year or more. They can't implement their own major legislation for years in some cases and here they can announce this three months in advance conveniently on the day Cameron was supposed to be released.
Looks pretty fishy.
Ed:
Not to sure about that new hire for CEO. Just heard it on the 5pm CBC Radio News. The track record in Sudbury is not inspiring.
They should have hired someone like Vic Young (if he ould take it). If he can deal with the mess that is the fishery for 20 years then he can deal with the messy health care system.
I guess Dangovt reads Bond Papers. They've announced that they will release the Report tomorrow at 2:00, after the local media get a one-hour lock-in.
In what appears to be a defensive swipe against (blogger?) criticism, they point out that they received the Report shortly before midnight last night, which doesn't mesh with the earlier media reports.
Great to hear that the Report will be issued tomorrow, but this makes yesterday's press release all the more odd. Whatever really happenend over the past 48 hours, it's not a model of good public communications.
Of course they do, Winston. They need to keep on top of what's happening.
I was going to request my purple file through ATIPPA. Then someone suggested it might turn out to be a purple filing cabinet so I begged off on the grounds of cost.
That's all tongue firmly in cheek but I will challenge you to think about this. before Tom Marshall said "masters of our domain" in the budgte speech last year where else had that been said fairly regularly?
Marshall better hope that Seinfeld doesn't find out about the copyright infringement.
As for the more immediate news of Eastern Health, a scan of the Sudbury Star indicates that Kaminski's tenure was not without controversy:
"Midway through her term as CEO, Kaminski and the hospital board also endured significant criticism with regard to her salary. In particular, there was considerable uproar in the community when it was reported Kaminski received a 50-per-cent raise in 2004, boosting her salary that year to $342,000. It was later reported the huge increase was due in part to a one-time payout for years of accumulated vacation time and, in fact, Kaminski's salary dropped somewhat in subsequent years and was at $327,000 in 2007"
http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1458343
It will be interesting to see what she gets in pay and benefits from DW. CBC's web site is already generating mixed reactions.
If this gets sticky, look for the Eighth Floor to do another psy-ops, likely involving Churchill Falls again, as a diversionary tactic. Then again, the looming issue of a potential EU ban on seal products will keep the wingnuts frothy enough for at least one news cycle.
Post a Comment