PR = reputation.
Reputation = credibility.
Credibility = honesty.
Honesty = consistency.
Get it?
Obviously a whole bunch of really important people don't.
Read on:
1. If security of consumer telecom service was an issue...why would you string cable on poles in Newfoundland? Persona chief operating officer and former Cable Atlantic exec Paul Hatcher told the Telegram on Saturday that the land portion of the GRAP deal is carried along Newfoundland Power poles.
Ice and sleet storms that interrupt telephone and power service are a common feature of life in eastern Newfoundland. Persona and Rogers customers - including the provincial government - can expect the odd problem with getting signal, that is unless Persona, Rogers and the Manitoba telephone company buy back-up service from Aliant.
Aliant's cables are buried underground.
2. Does the government have equity or fibre? Finance minister Loyola "Rainman" Sullivan described the province's $15 million expenditure as gaining "equity", as in ownership of an interest in the telecom project. Innovation minister Trevor Taylor said we are buying fibre.
Which is it?
There is a difference even if business minister Kevin O'Brien - yes, the business minister - doesn't know what it is without a briefing note.
3. And while we are at it... Why would Trevor Taylor tell NTV's Issues and Answers that the provincial government is buying fibre but could sell it to recover the investment?
Surely, the provincial government has done a comprehensive examination of how its own telecom cost are going to drop as a result of buying fibre strung along poles on the island portion of the province.
Surely, it has a business plan.
4. There was no RFP but there was talk of one. Early on someone asked why no request for proposals had been issued on this project. Innovation minister Trevor Taylor insisted there had not been one because it was an unsolicited proposal.
But on NTV's Issues and Answers confirmed that the provincial government had looked at seeking proposals. Cabinet decided not to issue an RFP since there was only one company likely to respond that hadn't - namely Aliant - and the cost of the process would be $1.0 million.
Ok.
So now we learn more details that lead us to doubt earlier answers. So much for early disclosure instilling confidence.
But then logically, we must also wonder:
5. Would the RFP have been about providing a cheap sub-sea link or would it have been to provide the provincial government with its own fibre?
Persona's Paul Hatcher already said the provincial money was needed to build the connection to Nova Scotia.
6. Since Aliant has surplus capacity in its system, why didn't cabinet think it was a good idea to encourage competition for its business? After all, the provincial government justified its expenditure of $15 million on the grounds that increased competition will lower costs.
It doesn't help credibility if you contradict your own explanations in the process of providing explanations.
7. $1.0 million is hardly a hefty price-tag when the provincial government is the largest telecom customer in the province. The Tories know this since they proposed in their Blue Book to use government purchasing power to drive down telecom cost. So rather than spend $1.0 million to ensure the $15 million was indeed the lowest cost, government decided to shave off the tiny amount and instead just drop the $15 million anyway.
So much for sound fiscal management in a government run by a Great Negotiator (patent pending).
8. There are two deals here. One is the stand-alone Persona landline, already underway and scheduled to be completed very soon. The other is the sea connection involving a group of cable companies.
Which one has the provincial government's cables in it? Since the deal was announced in relation to the sub-sea cable, presumably government's telecom is running on that one.
Presumably not.
Presumably.
9. Did anybody consider the impact of taking the provincial government's telecom service out of the marketplace?
One of the big issues in the Blue Print is using government's purchasing power to lower its own telecom costs. By purchasing its own dedicated fibreoptic capacity, the provincial government is effectively going into the telecom business for itself. More importantly, it is actually leaving the commercial telecom industry - suddenly - which will have a dramatic drop in business as a result.
Drops in business aren't good for consumer prices since the few customers remaining have to pay for all the surplus capacity that is being added to the telecom system.
That is, unless the provincial government is going to either subsidize the telecom companies - like it did with the paper companies recently - or overspend on telecom by keeping an outside telecom provider it doesn't really need.
Of course, that means the cost of this deal is a lot more than $15 million.
A lot.
At least for you and me, the people who are supposed to benefit from the deal.
10. Pull the other one...
Trevor Taylor needs to understand that no one - and I mean no one - believes that the the Dean/Ken/Danny/Paul relationship is one that happened six years ago, and by implication ended back then, as Taylor tried to tell the audience for Issues and Answers.
Even the Pitcher Plants know that Ken Marshall and Dean Macdonald have established and ongoing relationships with a whole bunch of people in government, today.
Especially the Premier.
Denying the obvious suggests you have no respect for your audience's intelligence, don't understand what is the core ethical issue and well...that you aren't telling the truth.
11. If cabinet was worried at least twice about alleged appearances of conflicts of interest over a deal involving the provincial government buying fibreoptic cables...
- why would such a beneficial idea have aroused any suspicions? After all, by one version of Trevor Taylor's story the provincial government is supposed to be piggybacking on a project for its own purposes, not meeting the needs - wink, wink, Paul Hatcher - of rich private telecom companies.
- what changed? The Bell Aliant fire didn't materially alter the project. It seems as though cabinet thought by fanning some of the smoke from the fire, they could sneak a project by everyone that otherwise they had no confidence in.
That really doesn't look good.
Heck, the whole thing doesn't look good.
And the provincial government can only blame itself.