Now this is a highly unusual thing since minutes of council are secret documents.
When asked to release the document in the House of Assembly, Taylor replied:
The fact of the matter is, Mr. Speaker, speaking of open and accountable, if he wants the MC, go get the transcript from the radio station.
The fact of the matter, Trev, is that since you quoted it, you would he honour-bound to release it or, be equally honour-bound to admit your mistake and resign from cabinet.
quoting the document and then telling the rest of us to get stuffed if we want to see it, isn't an option.
Oh and while we are at it...the Aliant fire occurred on October 20. The orchestrated outcries from government supporters occurred almost immediately and the whole deal passed through cabinet on October 26.
Hmmmm. That's pretty fast action, even for a deal that has been supposedly kicking around the system for 18 months. That's pretty fast considering the innovation minister was complaining that his comms on this project were lame because he was rushed. He never mentioned that every cabinet paper has to have a comms plan attached. Normally, 18 months would be time enough to get everything in order.
Even if we allow that the deal is actually much, much younger - like say only back to the spring (EWA was jammed up to provide its assessment in June) - that would still have given plenty of time to get the deal "showcased" properly.