Unintended humour

Even by the standards of the provincial government — and they aren't very high to begin with — the Activity Plan of the Intergovernmental Affairs Secretariat 2006-2008 is a laughably amateurish document.

From its high-school-graduation-invite choice of title font, to the use of the passive voice, to its actual use of the # sign to enumerate its three (count'em! three!) "issues", to its disjointed structure, to its pathetically lame content, it is a laugh-a-page testament to how every hour is Amateur Hour in Confederation Building.

Take "Issue #2" (please!), Federal Presence.

"Goal #2" includes "Factual and statistical information is identified or developed".

Well, at least here's some progress: they want factual and statistical information, even if, per the passive voice, it is identified or developed. By someone. Somewhere. Sometime. Somehow. Facts and stats, as opposed to the mindless, and counterfactual, hyperbole and demagoguery about how "we don't get our fair share".

As the Leslie Harris Centre for the Study and Promulgation of Newfoundland Nationalist Mythology of Regional Policy and Development has noted — under some duress — Newfoundland and Labrador's share of the Canadian federal civil service is actually larger than the province's share of Canada's population.

However, if IGA is looking for still more factual and statistical information to be identified or developed, passively, by someone, somewhere, sometime and somehow, here's a start:

First, try Cansim Table 183-002, available from Statistics Canada.

Then, go see the Treasury Board Secretariat.

There. Your bill for consulting fees is in the mail.



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Postscript : There's also one very important word missing from the Activity Plan.

Outgoing Minister John Ottenheimer, a francophile and former French teacher, didn't once mention the importance of the government-to-government relationship with Quebec. For a provincial administration that is supposedly committed to Labrador, to progress on the Labrador highway connection with the rest of the country, and to promoting the whole fixed link notion, this is a rather curious omission. The Q-word is nowhere to be found.