Sir Robert Revised

The original idea for the Sir Robert Bond Papers was for an occasion series of academic papers or thought provoking essays along the lines of what comes periodically from some of the country's thin-tanks.

The first in the series was "Which is to be master?", originally available as a pdf and later serialized.  In the event, Bond Papers evolved into something else.

With the Victoria Day weekend now behind us, and with me still on a self-imposed hiatus, Bond Papers returns with a series of posts faithful to the original intent.

Dr. Philip J. Warren is synonymous with education in Newfoundland and Labrador. Born in New Perlican in 1933, Dr. Warren holds a doctorate in education from the University of Alberta. He was chairman of the Royal Commission on Education and Youth (1964) and as minister of education in the first Wells administration, he was part of the drive to further reform in the province's education system.

Few can rightly claim to have had such a profound effect on education in the province. Dr. Warren was a teacher and principal before he joined the faculty of education at Memorial University in 1962.  Countless teachers have been influenced by him both in the classrooms at Memorial and through his writings.

Dr. Warren delivered the opening address at a recent symposium on education sponsored by the Harris Centre and the Faculty of Education. The text of his address will be presented here in a series of four posts beginning on May 20. For those who wish to see the full presentation, the Harris Centre has posted a video.

As noted in the introductory materials from the symposium, Dr. Warren is currently working on a book on education reform which places the efforts at change in a social, political and economic context. If the speech is any indication, Dr. Warren's book will be required reading for anyone seriously interested in the future of our province.

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Suspended animation

The Sir Robert Bond Papers and The Persuasion Business are in suspended animation effective today.

There will be no new posts for the foreseeable future. That's the suspension.

Old material  - in the usual animated style - is still available.  You can find posts through the archives list on the right hand navigation bar (scroll down a bit) or through google searches.

The Bond Store will remain open for those who are looking for great gifts or a way to show your contrarian nature on the beach or the golf course.

The reasons are simple.

First, it is a matter of time.  New projects will consume most of the time available to your humble e-scribbler over the coming months and work takes priority, right after family.

Second is a matter of how Bond Papers has always run. There's never been client business here nor has there been a discussion of issues related to a client. In the projects now starting, it will be difficult if not impossible to maintain the commentary on numerous aspects of public relations and public affairs without impinging on client affairs in one way or another. That's the more important reason behind the change.

Bond Papers is at a peak.  Readership remains high with over 11,500 readers each month and over 18,000 page loads. That's where it has been since early 2007. Readers include opinion leaders across the country but the bulk are opinion leaders within Newfoundland and Labrador. They may not think of themselves in those terms, in many cases, but they are.

It's been humbling to take a look each day at the traffic.  Thanks for your interest and for your feedback over the past three and a half years.

They will find other places to spend a few minutes each day.  Other blogs are available, like nottawa and labradore, to fill their need for a daily dose of pithy commentary and uncomfortable truths. If they want something a little saucier and considerably better written they can try Serious Business. If they like it straight, there are none straighter or more readable than Gary Kelly.

Public Ledger is back, for those who like Craig Westcott's take on things.  For the musings of another bastard, this time a townie, they can check out Craig Welsh's appropriately titled towniebastard. Both Craigs will not take offense at a little name calling.  The appellation is offered with greatest respect; both have earned that regard for different reasons.

Geoff Meeker is still highly recommended for those who prefer some discussion of media issues and some cross over to a discussion of public relations and communications.  Geoff may have inherited some things to get him started in his work but he has given professionalism a new definition both in his life as a journalist and as a public relations practitioner.

Other than that, there are simply too many good public relations blogs out there to recommend one or two over the rest.  Just google search and you'll get hits.

There are plenty of other blogs that focus on different aspects of life.  As much as people have tried to define or categorize blogs, each definition ultimately falls far short of what they are. Blogs are as varied in subject and tone and content as the people who write them. You will find a good sampling in the links to local blogs over there at the right. Blogs take work and thought - despite what some think - and blog writers are always appreciative of visitors. Drop in and check them out.  You may be surprised at what you'll find.

Blogging is a powerful medium and that fact has been proven numerous times across the globe. Influencing public opinion is the stock in trade of public relations practitioners and many have ignored blogs at their peril. The dearth of locally produced blogs on public relations or the dearth of local blogs on any subject that aren't privately and personally generated should give local communications practitioners cause to reconsider what they do. 

With all that said, readers render the final judgment.  If Bond Papers and Persuasion Business have proven valuable, even if  infuriating sometimes  - or every day -  then they hit the target.

The e-mail addresses still work if you need to vent or to make an inquiry. The comments sections will stay open for a short while, but the basic rules still apply:  take responsibility for your words.

Whether or not the suspension turns out to be permanent remains to be seen.

In the meantime, the last words are the simplest and the most heartfelt:

Thank you.

-srbp/tpb-

The other foot

Courtesy of Labradore, a sampling of some of the misinformation and racist attitudes prevalent in the province.

Interestingly enough, the comments posted at vocm.com about Inuit people are the same sorts of things that only a short while ago, these same commenters were likely bristling at when aimed at them by mainlanders.

Now that the shoe is on the other foot, perhaps they'll start to understand. 

Of course some of them will have to take the shoe out of their backside in order to do that, but it's a start.

-srbp-

NAPE's real agenda? Just follow the money.

Public sector union boss Carol Furlong is emotional - shocked and dismayed - at the Liberal and New Democrat opposition for voicing an opinion on public sector collective bargaining.

Labour uber-boss Reg Anstey - head of Federation of Labour - is equally in a snit over the same issue.

The "crime" both the Liberals and New Democrats supposedly committed was to introduce and support a private member's resolution last Wednesday that called for an end to pattern bargaining in the public sector.  That's the practice whereby the first contract negotiated sets the pattern, especially on wages, for everyone else.

Now a couple of things need to be borne in mind here:

First, private member's resolutions have no weight so Furlong's little release looks a bit foolish right on the face of it.  Interference in the collective bargaining process?  What silliness.  A private member's resolution couldn't interfere even if it was approved unanimously every day in the legislature that sat every day for a year.

Second, even if such resolutions weren't largely symbolic anyway, the government party amended the resolution to take all the meaning of the words out anyway.

Usually when someone, either alone or representing some group, decides to get into such a lather, there's something else involved behind the stated reasons.  And when the lede on the news release is about "shock and dismay" then you know something else is up.  People only use those tired cliches because they have nothing else.

Pattern bargaining means that Carol Furlong can deliver a hefty raise to her members this year without lifting a finger or doing a serious tap of collective bargaining on behalf of her members.

The heavy lifting for clerks in the Confed Building, for example, will be done this year by Debbie Forward and her crew.

The pattern this year is being set by the nurses.

Nurses are in high demand.

Wages for nurses are relatively low and there's plenty of pressure on government to give nurses an increase much higher than they might otherwise.

The nurses will set the bar.

And Carol Furlong's members will repeat the benefits.

Oh yes, and when she runs for re-election, Carol will tell her members that under her leadership, her members gained such and such a wage increase.

Nurses, teachers and doctors haven't been big fans of pattern bargaining for some time.  That's because they see a huge gap getting even wider between salaries their members earn in this province and what they can get elsewhere. Pattern bargaining does that by lumping every single public sector worker into the same pot. The cost implications get pretty significant if one portion of the labour force needs a 10% jump to stay competitive but that 10% has to apply to everyone in the workforce.

Now the problem for Furlong and Anstey is that it isn't really popular to talk about the facts of the matter.  If they did, public opinion might take the side of the doctors and nurses and teachers over the views of their members.  It doesn't matter that Furlong's members do work that is just as important, mind you.  The point is that if the talk was about the real issue then Carol and her fellow NAPE leaders might actually have to do her job:  defend her members based on a cogent, rational, persuasive argument.

It's way easier for Carol to make the news by talking about her emotional condition than to talk about the substantive issues.  Sadly, in this province, that sort of drivel release gets coverage just like it does when cabinet minister tell us they are "shocked and appalled" at some other thing.  Someone should just give them some Tylenol and a cold compress and tell them to lie down until the high dudgeon passes.

In the meanwhile, maybe Carol Furlong and Reg Anstey should be challenged to to explain to taxpayers why pattern bargaining is a good thing. 

We don't care that they get the vapours.

People should hear the real reasons about why pattern bargaining is good.  They deserve to know why Carol and Reg think it is entirely right and proper for people who - as Reg and Carol acknowledge  - aren't even involved in collective bargaining to be gagged, to be prevented from speaking about an issue in the legislature.

That motion angered the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE). In a release on Friday, federation of labour president Reg Anstey said the motion showed a "complete lack of understanding and respect for the bargaining process by both the Liberals and the NDP."

You see, it's really significant for the whole province when union leaders try to muzzle the elected representatives of the people speaking about a public issue.

In an open discussion people will see for themselves whether or not the parties understand and respect collective bargaining.  That is, if that's what Anstey's really worried about.

We might find out, in an open discussion, that they are a bit more concerned about two union leaders and their apparent disregard for free speech.

-srbp-

More police probes into House of Assembly than previously known?

Okay, so Auditor General John Noseworthy doesn't think he's muzzled, but are there more police investigations into the House of Assembly than previously known?

Appearing at the legislature's management committee meeting on Friday, Noseworthy said:

When I issued the report in September, I knew, at that point, that the police were actively investigating that report. I talked with the RNC and asked if it was okay to publicly talk about that now. They said, yes, okay, you can talk about it. I explained I had to come before the Commission and I needed to provide an explanation and they said, that is fine. So I knew - and I do not think the public were generally aware of that - it is ongoing today. So the RNC are actively investigating that report.

The Auditor General comments can also be found at that ram audio file.

Noseworthy said that at the time he issued the report in September 2007, he was aware "that the police were actively investigating that report."  He didn't say the police were investigating some aspects related to other reports already made public;  that is he didn't refer to the investigations that had already resulted in criminal charges being laid against five people.  He indicated clearly on Friday the police were investigating the September report, which covered constituency allowance spending by all members of the House of Assembly dating back to 1989.

In the original order in council establishing Noseworthy's second investigation, the cabinet explicitly established his work as a special assignment under section 16 of the Auditor General Act. The first investigation was conducted as a routine audit of the House of Assembly accounts.

Normally, that sort of special assignment would be reported as such - a section 16 assignment - which is what Noseworthy did with the fibreoptic review. However, in both his 2006 and 2007 annual reports, Noseworthy does not list the work as a special report under s. 16 of his own legislation.

In both instances, he lists the work as falling under s.15 of the AG act, the one dealing with suspected improper retention of public funds and similar matters. Bond Papers noted this earlier in 2008.

The only logical reason for reporting in this way would be if Noseworthy had filed additional reports in suspected importer handling of public funds, as required under section 15 of the Auditor General Act, beyond the ones already known to the public.

While Noseworthy can't discuss it, several people can, including the Premier, the Attorney General, the Minister of Finance and the Speaker.  That's where responsibility rests for such matters under section 45 of the House of Assembly accountability and integrity act otherwise known as the Green bill.  If any reports existed, and they were filed earlier than June 2007 under section 15 of the Auditor General Act, the minister responsible for receiving those reports would be the finance minister.

If there are no reports other than the ones we already know about, the Auditor General and others seem to be going through an awful lot of torture for nothing in their reporting of events.  The evident lack of clear disclosure seems to have led to all sorts of misunderstands, in that case.

Sure, there's no muzzle.  There never was.

But has the Auditor General been absolutely consistent and factual all along?  If so, there may be a much wider police investigation than many previously realized.

-srbp-

Swantanamo Bay?

Animal rights activists are targeting the City of Ottawa's housing for its swans.

Cost for upgrades:  half a million bucks.

h/t to Flacklife and Bob LeDrew.

-srbp-

CKW 4 SCC

The facebook group to join the campaign.

The Toronto Star blog mention.

-srbp-

Changing the face of the news release

Compare this Ontario government news release with this example from the NewfoundlandLabrador government.

The traditional news release evolved from a print format news story. There is still tremendous value in the style, format and content if it is used properly.

The problem comes in situations where, despite drawing most of its communications directors straight out of news rooms, the overwhelming majority of provincial government news release are turgid, boring drek.  They may contain some of the most exciting and innovative ideas on the planet but the format in which the information is conveyed seems calculated to put people to sleep.

Now, sometimes news releases are deliberately written and distributed in a way to avoid telling things, but that's a whole other issue. Burying information is not communications; it's grave digging.

The Ontario approach breaks the conventions but it does deliver the information the government wants to convey in a way which people can take it up quickly and easily.  Reporters will likely find it easier as the starting point for putting their pieces together since it breaks everything down in tidy bundles.  The rest of us will also likely find it easier to scan and, frankly, that's the intention. 

With so much information coming in so many formats and through so many channels, people who want to stay informed have become browsers.

They scan.

Here's a heatmap picture [Source: Jakob Neilson's Alertbox] of how people scan web pages of different types. 

The red bits show areas of most eye activity.  Yellow is less activity and the grey bits are places where people don't look at all.

Some people spend a lot of time looking at these things since it tells us how to present information in a way that people will pick it up. 

Take a look at the web page you're looking at right now.  Notice that the posts - the things you should be reading are presented in the upper left, that is where all the red activity would typically take place. On the right are things that are considerably less important, not by the reckoning of your humble e-scribbler, but by the results of studies into the reading patterns of people just like you.

Don't worry, by the way.  You aren't being monitored, scanned or otherwise probed, at least not by this site.

Since people do learn to look to the right for other useful bits of information.  On the google page on the right of the picture, that's where those google ads appear with links off to some other site.  People spend a lot of time figuring out what attracts google attention in order to get a site into that red zone on the upper left.  Alternately, they just buy space on the upper right.

At Bond Papers, the stuff that the top of the right-hand column gets moved about a bit depending on what needs to be highlighted. The whole idea, though, is to put stuff where you are more likely to look so that you'll be more likely to see it.

The Ontario government news release doesn't really conform to this eye scan approach but it does at least reflect the shifting patterns in how people take in information.

Let's see if this idea catches on.  We shouldn't look locally or expect change any time soon, though, since the local market is fairly conservative.  The provgov's a good example;  the site only recently started posting photographs with releases and it's unimaginable that the provgov or one of its agencies would try youtubing stuff with decent quality video.

Doing more of the same when the environment changes makes it less likely your communication will be successful.

Take, for example, the campaign to promote composting.  Boosting the number of people composting successfully would require a shift in popular culture. The most effective way to do that would be through creation of a support network either within a physical community or through online communities and blogs.

Go find the official government composting blog.

Keep looking.

You won't find one.

That's because the project was approached as a typical flogging project.  We've got these bins and we need to move them out the door.  Therefore, run some advertising.  Print some brochures.  Find a price point at which the bins will move.

The key metric for success should have been the number of people composting successfully which in turn would reduce the amount of food matter heading for landfills.  Now the advertising mentioned the problem and how wonderful things would be if people composted, but nothing created the support system needed to actually have people composting.

The metric for success seems to have been the number of bins moved.

By that record, the project was a success.

Has anyone checked to see how many bins are not just taking up space in the corner of backyards?

Probably not.

But traditional news releases make wonderful fodder for a compost bin when you print them out.

In too many cases, that's about all they are good for.

-tpb/srbp-

Lords of the blog

Some members of the House of Lords are co-operating on a blog.

The official description:

Lords of the Blog is an experimental project to encourage direct dialogue between web users across the world and Members of the House of Lords. Commissioned by the House of Lords, the pilot project is conducted by the Hansard Society who are working directly with Members of the Lords to bring their blogs to the wider online audience.

Views expressed by the authors or ‘bloggers’ are their own and do not represent the views of the House of Lords, its authorities or its other Members (including parties and other groups of Members) or the Hansard Society.

There is a slightly more elaborate description.

If the notoriously conservative if not a tad eccentric crowd known as the British peers are blogging, then surely others will notice the value of frank, informal dialogue for government and business purposes.

-srbp/tpb-

Breast cancer patient receives notice of re-test...this week

All patients have been notified.

Well, maybe not all.

And there was never a need to set up a toll free line for patients to check, just in case the regional health authority records were inaccurate.

Liberal leader Yvonne Jones raised the issue in the legislature on Thursday. Her office issued a news release, as well:

"I was very surprised when I learned that this individual from the west coast was contacted for the first time yesterday," said Ms. Jones. "She has been living a healthy lifestyle for the past several years and had no previous indication that her testing results may have been faulty. I have to question whether any other breast cancer patients affected by the faulty hormone receptor testing have yet to be contacted?"

Eastern Health is reportedly checking into the matter.

-srbp-

Provincial government limits patient use of own health information

Lorraine Michael raised an interesting question in  the legislature today about regulations governing patient records  held by the province's regional health authorities.

The question is interesting not only for what it contains but for the response of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General.

As the New Democratic Party leader noted, the regulation (NLR 18/08, s. 6) regional health authorities may release records to patients - referred to as clients - however under subsection (5):

A person to whom information is provided or who is permitted access under subsection (3) or (4) shall not publish or disclose information obtained from the client records of the regional health authority where the publication or disclosure may or could be detrimental to the personal interest, reputation or privacy of

(a) a client;

(b) a physician;

(c) a member of the staff of the regional health authority; or

(d) a person employed by the regional health authority. [Emphasis added]

That section of the legislation covers not only individuals who may be using patient records for research purposes but also covers the patients themselves.

Justice minister Jerome Kennedy indicated he wasn't aware of the regulation but undertook to look into it:

I am not aware of that amendment or the regulations you are talking about. I certainly will have a look at them and come back. It does strike me as somewhat strange in terms of restricting people’s ability to use their information, but there would have to be an overriding of public interest. So, I certainly will check into that and we can continue this discussion further.

The Minister might note that the regulations start by establishing that records involved do not belong to the patient (client). They are the property of the regional health authority.

The saving grace here is that the access to information act doesn't contain such a restriction and its provisions supercede the regulations involved.  The access act applies to regional health authorities just as it does to all public bodies, with the exception of the Auditor General. It seems he can decide to exempt himself from following the law by his own decision.

-srbp-

Wells for SCC

He turned 70 last fall but he's still in great shape and his mind is as sharp as ever.

Who better for the Supreme Court of Canada than Clyde Wells, currently Chief Justice of the appellate division of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador?  He can take the seat vacated by Mr. Justice Bastarache.

We'd suggest in the alternative Madame Justice Margaret Cameron but she's got more valuable things to do right now sorting out yet another major problem in the provincial government. 

Besides, since the mandatory retirement age for justices is 75, Madame Justice Cameron can take the spot when Wells steps down in three or four years.

I'll start working on the tee-shirt design and we'll have them at the Bond Store ASAP.

-srbp-

BondFlash: Memo to National Media

Today's best scrum opportunity.

-srbp-

Timely blog discoveries

Comprehension, the Public Relations Society of America blog.

crisisblogger, the blog for crisis managers and communicators.

-tpb/srbp-

The Potemkin Cabinet

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians must surely be wondering about the government which they support through their tax dollars.

It does not function according to law, apparently.

Ross Wiseman, currently holding the title Minister of Health and Community Services told the Cameron Inquiry on Thursday that deputy ministers are appointed by the Premier. Wiseman said he was not consulted by the Premier and, indeed, had no knowledge of the appointment of a new deputy minister in his department in May 2007 until the deed was done.

Wiseman is misinformed.

All Canadian provinces operate according to the rule of law and Newfoundland and Labrador is no exception. Laws are approved by the elected representatives of the people in the House of Assembly and all people, including cabinet ministers are obliged to follow the rules established by law.

Wiseman would do well to check the statute books to see what his powers, duties and responsibilities are.

Under the Executive Council Act, deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministers are appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.  As with the conventions long established in Westminster style governments, the first minister recommends the appointments to these positions but it is the Lieutenant Governor, on the advice of his or her council that approves the recommendations.

This is no small matter.

While the first minister may have the sole right to make the recommendations, it is not the first minister who holds the authority to make the appointments. Constitutional lawyers may now begin to quibble but the distinction is important.

Deputy ministers, after all, are supposed to be accountable for their management of the department to the minister appointed to the department. There are several lines of accountability for both the minister and especially for the deputy minister, but there is not supposed to be a situation in which the deputy minister does not, de facto, have to answer to the minister.

The federal approach is typical:

Because deputy ministers are appointed on the recommendation of the prime minister (usually with the advice of the clerk of the Privy Council), a minister who is not satisfied with the administration of his or her department by the deputy minister and who is unable to resolve matters directly with the deputy may bring these concerns to the clerk or, ultimately, to the prime minister.

Those words have great importance for the matters currently the subject of the Cameron Inquiry. Former health minister Tom Osborne has testified under oath that officials of his department did not provide him with a copy of an important briefing note prepared in late 2006 for the Premier. Osborne's predecessor, John Ottenheimer, has described a similar situation, one in which he was not sure of his own authority - that is, his power under law, to direct certain actions within his own department.

Both Osborne and Ottenheimer appeared to have been sidelined in the management of this very significant issue and there are other signs that this is so. There is some evidence to suggest that departmental staff reported to central agencies, i.e. those directly responsible to the Premier, before they passed information to the minister. It appears so at this stage, but there is much more testimony to come.  Final judgment will have to be reserved but even at this relatively early stage, we may sketch in the outline of how this particular administration appears to function.

And it is a most peculiar functioning indeed.  It is a government which has all the external trappings of cabinet government but which, in practice, holds that everyone is accountable directly to the Premier. If this sketch holds true, cabinet government and collective responsibility  - and collective authority - has been replaced by one large organization with notional subdivisions all reporting to a single individual.

A deputy minister would only ignore his minister   - such as by withholding crucial information - if he or she believed, rightly or wrongly,  that authority rested somewhere other than in the minister's office. In a world where the deputy minister's job tenure is solely the prerogative of the Premier and where the most senior public servant has only irregular meetings with the first minister, there is no value in keeping happy a minister who asks inconvenient questions.  Why bother to do anything but humour the poor minister when the person or people who count have offices on the eighth floor of the East Block?

As noted already, this is a sketch -  a hypothesis if you will allow  - based on a portion of the total evidence to be received by Madame Justice Cameron.

Sometimes, the outline of the mosaic can be seen, though, even if one hasn't finished pulling back to see the whole thing. You just have to look at the individual tiles and see how they fit together.

-srbp-

And on the fourth day, he headed out of the province...

The announcement from the Premier's Office is old news for people who read Bond Papers.

-srbp-

Math tudors beware

A blog and a mission to stamp out typos in America.

Readers know there are a few typos around these parts.  With any luck, they don't distract from the rest of the content.

One local blog author seems to have missed the spell check button orientation briefing, hence one of the more hilarious phrases lately about two people who teach arithmetic.  Unfortunately, it came out as a couple who run about doing ye olde sums in codpiece, tights and puffed collar.

Then there was Gary Cake [note only one "r"]  - assistant secretary to cabinet for social policy - who in the rendering became Garry Cake, morphed to Carry Cake but never quite made it through the typo evolution to the anthropomorphized Cherry Cake.

Suddenly people are feeling a bit peckish, no doubt. A delicious treat with tea or coffee that can route e-mails using a blackberry.  Coat the letters with flour to keep them from sinking to the bottom of the page while they are being typed or baked or whatever.

Coffee and cake.

Cake and Coffey. 

Words are pesky things.

Others, meanwhile, may be having visions of Cherry Cake, the stripper.

Pole-dancing at the Cabinet Secretariat.

The Clerk must be doing something besides keeping his boss up to speed, and watching strippers or eating  are as likely as anything else.

The thought of Gary - by the by, as thorough a professional as one might find in his job -  in pasties and garters prancing about the 9th Floor to some raunchy concertina version of "Star of Logy Bay", is an image that those who know Gary may find arresting, if not downright disturbing. 

It is an incongruity to trump all other incongruities even if it is placed in a suitably folky context for the current crowd of nationalists, courtesy of the squeezebox grinding away in time to the flicking of hips.

Or maybe the Clerk's boss is the one who finds distractions that keep him from keeping up on what he gets paid to do.

But anyway, said typo farm raised even more puzzled stares the other day by ending a comment with three words:

"Your obsessed boy."

It gave the comment the feel of a haiku but without the adherence to form, at least in the front bit of the comment.

The sentence fragment remains curious since the preoccupations of my eldest child were totally unconnected to the discussion at hand.

Typos can be fun.

Feel free to share your favourites.

-srbp-

and on the third day, the Premier had no control of anything...

Wednesday turned out to be a day of bizarre contradictions.

Consider, for example, that on Monday the Premier insisted he took full responsibility for what was done or not done by anyone involved in the breast cancer debacle. He spoke consistent with principles of modern, public sector administration.

By Wednesday, as questions swirled around why a briefing note prepared for him was not sent to the minister at the time, he had a different view of control and responsibility:

So, you know I cannot attribute any blame. I cannot pass my own personal opinion on it. What we have seen is we have seen instances where Eastern Health had omitted and deleted information from briefing notes that were being released under ATTIP requests, and that was done. They have gone off - they have actually had press conferences where, in fact, all of the information was not revealed. Those are actions that are beyond the control of the minister. The minister cannot be responsible for every single person all the way down the line in the health care system because they have no possible, tangible means of doing it.

"Those are actions that are beyond the control of the minister. "  How odd. 

The Premier makes this comment after claiming that officials of Eastern Health had edited documents being released under the province's access to information laws. This is certainly news on the order of the allegations of forged documents that led to the Somalia Inquiry.  It's a curious parallel for the Premier to draw, even implicitly, since Somalia was a tale, in part, of great intrigue including the destruction of documents and problems in presenting documents to an inquiry.

But even if this allegation about the production of false documents were true - and there doesn't appear to be any evidence thus far that it is - the subsequent part of the Premier's comment undermines any notion of ministerial responsibility and ministerial accountability which he laid claim to on Monday.

Legally, ministers are indeed responsible for the actions of the department and the people within the department.  They are accountable to the public through the legislature for those actions.  They have tangible means of directing action and of monitoring activities within the department.  Departments are organized specifically to provide direction and control from the minister through to the front line workers of a given agency.

If there is no "possible, tangible means of doing it", i.e. of being responsible, then the department cannot function and government would grind to a halt.  think about it for a minute.  If a minister cannot direct action within a department there is no need for the legislature to pass laws directing a program to be implemented.  If a problem is detected, as in the breast cancer case, then it will be impossible to ensure it never happens again nor is it possible to produce the "best system in the country."  An absence of control and accountability - the essence of the Premier's comment - makes it impossible for government to function.

A minister cannot micro-manage, of course, if that is what the Premier meant.  It is impossible for anyone to direct the specific, detailed actions of every person in any organization, irrespective of its size.  Only fools try to do it and those fools that do usually create a dysfunctional organization full of unpleasant, unhappy and unhealthy people in the process.

The Premier's contention is, on the face of it, sheer nonsense.  Ministers can and do control their departments in a variety of ways. One of them is through the simple issuing of direction on what will be done in a given instance or, when something is not done, to have it sorted out and done to the satisfaction of the minister.

One of the enduring unanswered questions in the breast cancer debacle thus far relates to this simple notion.  Once ministers - including the Premier - became aware of certain issues, such as a failure by Eastern Health to disclose information, they failed to direct other action instead.  For example, if the Premier was aware - as he clearly was - that Eastern Health was no disclosing certain information - he failed to issue instructions to correct the situation. 

That is, by his own account he failed to exercise his legal responsibilities as first minister to direct the actions of government officials or those of Crown agencies.

With regard to the minister’s comment on, if he had it, he would have gone public. Well, I do not know what he had or what he did not have. He did not have that briefing note. The following month there was a press conference whereby Eastern Health disclosed information, even though they did not disclose all of it, and I have no control over that, that was in the public domain. Why the minister at that point did not decide to come to me or go public with it, he is the only one who can answer that. [Emphasis added]

Contrast that with the Premier's words and actions as the House of Assembly scandal broke in June 2006.  He took action.  He issued instructions.  He took credit for bringing the Auditor General into the House of Assembly. He had no executive authority to do so - the House is not a government department -  but he claimed credit for it anyway.

Yet, on a far more serious matter in a department over which he, as first minister had executive control through cabinet and successive ministers, the Premier had "no control over that." One wonders why, if that were the case, he would request a briefing note on a matter over which he had no control. Idle curiosity?  Why would he have bothered to give up the life of a successful lawyer to take on a job where he had no control over anything of substance? How is it that he can be consumed with trivialities enough to threaten legal action against your humble e-scribbler for some still incomprehensible reason and yet he cannot control the actions of government officials nor recall whether or not he received briefings on key issues?

The answer to these questions is, of course, that the Premier's comments in the House today are sheer nonsense.

Some of his other comments though may not be nonsense and, if true, raise far more significant implications for the conduct of government business.  A 1998 description of the executive functioning of the provincial government describes a typical relationship of the Premier and his two chief advisors, his political chief of staff and the Clerk of the Executive Council.

A close working relationship involving the Office of the Premier, Cabinet Secretariat and the other secretariats within the Office of the Executive Council is essential. The Premier meets daily with both his Chief of Staff and the Clerk of the Executive Council. The Premier’s Chief of Staff and the Clerk of the Executive Council work in close collaboration, keeping the other apprised of political, policy, communications and administrative considerations.

At the head of the Office of the Executive Council (other than the Office of the Premier) is the Clerk of the Executive Council and Secretary to the Cabinet. This position encompasses three related roles. As Deputy Minister to the Premier, the Clerk is the senior official reporting to the Premier on all governmental matters. The Clerk receives and transmits instructions from the Premier, and, as the senior official in the Office of the Executive Council, the Clerk coordinates the operation of the secretariats.

The Clerk assists the Premier in setting the Cabinet agenda, arranges meetings of Cabinet, oversees the preparation of briefing materials for the Premier, ensures the records of Cabinet are properly maintained and, under the Premier’s guidance, plans Cabinet retreats. The Clerk is also responsible for process in the conduct of Cabinet business and, from time to time, works with Ministers and senior officials on substantive matters on Cabinet’s agenda.

It would not be unusual for the Clerk of the Executive Council to meet with the premier daily on a variety of issues.  The Clerk is after all, the deputy minister to the Premier and typically reports to the Premier on all matters of government especially those involving the administration of government.

With that as background, consider the following comment by the Premier in response to a question about whether the Clerk of the Council had mentioned to him the serious problem at Eastern Health when the Clerk became aware of it in July 2005:

Mr. Speaker, I cannot recall a conversation with Mr. Thompson on that particular issue. Mr. Thompson would brief me, not on a daily basis. It was sometimes on an extended basis, sometimes it could be as long as a month when we sat down for briefings. Mr. Thompson and his staff, I have not made a direct question to Mr. Thompson as to whether I did have it, but it has been requested as to whether there were any conversations with Mr. Thompson, and to my knowledge there were none.

A month between briefings from his own deputy minister? Those familiar with the operations of government would find such a statement leads to only a handful of conclusions none of which are good either for the province or the Premier.

The most obvious conclusion is that he is suffering from pinocchiosis but it would be rash to assume this. He may well be stating his own view of the job and of the reality of how this administration functions or dysfunctions. The Premier may well not bother himself with many of demands of his job, leaving responsibility to his unelected staff and to such cabinet ministers as Tom Rideout.

Of course, that is not the picture which has been described to date nor is it the basis on which he has received such overwhelming popular support. That's one of the political landmines Danny Williams faces:  the Cameron Inquiry may reveal much of how his administration has actually functioned.

If he continues to claim he has no control of anything and attempts to shift responsibility for action and inaction onto other people, the public may well start to wonder why they elected him and his associates in the first place.

No wonder cabinet is trying desperately to find an excuse to stop questions in the House of Assembly on the breast cancer debacle. 

-srbp-

Civics 101 for government employees

Given the layers of approval provincial government news releases go through, the glaring error in this one speaks to a problem with what public servants know about the political system in our province.

The Provincial Government has passed a new act respecting architects which replaces the previous Architects Act of 1995.

The Provincial Government?

Forget that, strictly speaking, those two words don't get capitalized in this context.

What's noticeable here is that the very first statement makes a fundamental mistake about which authority approves legislation.

The provincial government is the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.  In other words, the provincial government is the administrative body that delivers programs and services under the constitution.  The executive power - the administrative decision making power belongs to the Lieutenant Governor in Council.  That's the cabinet by another name and while the Lieutenant Governor is largely a ceremonial position, the Council, or cabinet happens to be the executive officers of the the government.

But in order to spend money or indeed to even carry out its administrative functions, the government needs to get approval from another body.  That body is the House of Assembly and the approval comes from laws approved by a majority of the elected representatives of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Following so far?

It's really pretty simple.  The Government didn't pass this new act.  The House of Assembly did.

And to be absolutely strict about it, this new law isn't even a law with full force until the Lieutenant Governor nods his head - quite literally - or signs the legal document approving it.

According to the House of Assembly website, that nod hasn't been given.  Check the progress of bills page and scan across to the column marked Royal Assent. It's blank.  While it's possible that the thing just hasn't been updated, it's actually more likely given parliamentary tradition that this bill is not law until His Honour attends the House at the end of the current session and nods after the title of each bill is read.

Aside from the capitalization thing, this news release is fundamentally wrong.  It misidentifies where the legal authority for the new bill comes from and it has been issued before the bill has completed the legal process.

Talk about contempt of the Crown, the legislature and the people of Newfoundland and Labrador and displaying a complete ignorance of how our democracy works.

Some may toss this off as a trivial issue. 

Well, those are people who likely also don't have any regard for how our democracy works both in theory and in practice. The more we minimise and trivialise the roles different people play in our democracy, the weaker our democracy becomes.

Next thing you know, some newly elected member of the legislature will be thanking his party leader for the privilege of being allowed to join the leader's team.

Or a briefing note on a major issue will skip past the office of the minister responsible and head straight to the leader's suite.

Oh wait.

Those things already happened.

[Almost immediate update:  Same minister, same department, same deputy minister, same communications director, same mistake, done a day earlier.

Same problem:  This is not legally enforceable today, but the release suggests it is.]

-srbp-

And on the second day, it was more of the same...

[Update:  CBC has provided audio of Question Period in the House of Assembly.  This one is a ram file for Monday's QP. The Hansard transcript can be found at the House of Assembly website, in case you want to follow along.]

According to vocm.com, the Premier developed a concern today about the propriety of asking questions related to the Cameron Inquiry:

Following questioning from Opposition House Leader Kelvin Parsons on what other government officials may have already been subpoenaed, Williams asked the Department of Justice to seek guidance from the Cameron Inquiry as to whether questions pertaining to the ongoing inquiry should be answered in the House.

Other media have reported the same basic idea.

That conversion on the road to Damascus lasted only long enough for the Premier to turn up on Out of the Fog on Tuesday evening to discuss...wait for it...the Inquiry and, among other things related to it, the testimony of some of his former ministers. 

Out of the Fog is the local Rogers community access channel show.

No word so far on what Madame Justice Margaret Cameron's answer to the query or if the query has even been relayed.

As with Day One, the Premier played many parts and displayed different moods.  He displayed agitation when asked about the number of people with government who have received subpoenas to testify at the Cameron Inquiry.

The Premier also got a bit annoyed with suggestions that the head of the Cameron Inquiry liaison team (CILT) might be in a conflict of interest since he was involved in handling the issue in his capacity as Clerk of the Executive Council up to last year when he was appointed to head the liaison team and serve as acting deputy health minister.

It will be interesting to see what Madame Justice Cameron responds to the question about public comment on her inquiry.  After all, if she says nothing or declines to direct the Premier, he will take that as a green light to say what he wishes. If she points out that ministers should be restrained in their comments, that will be an excuse to say little if anything in answer to questions that the Cameron Inquiry may not ask.

Then again, the Premier reminded everyone yesterday he is a lawyer and tends to think of these issues differently from other people.  If that was really the case, then he would have refrained from commenting much earlier  - like say before Day One - and kept his ministers in check much earlier.  If the gags go on now, people might wonder why it is that he suddenly remembered legal niceties only after he'd finished saying what he wanted to say.

-srbp-