Why break a promise a little

... when you can break it a lot?

For the record, from the 2003 Danny Williams Party Blueprint:

"A Progressive Conservative government will ... release to the public every government-commissioned report within 30 days of receiving it, indicate the action government will take on a report's recommendations within 60 days, and ensure prompt public access to all government reports in hard copy and on the Internet"

Yesterday — which was September 8, 2008 — Clyde Jackman finally released a consultant's report by ArtsExperts.ca on the operations of the Arts and Culture centres across the province.

The headline on the press release is Province Receives Arts and Culture Centre Report.

The mail must be really, really slow from ArtsExperts.ca's offices in Montreal to Jackman's office in St. John's if he only just yesterday received it. The date on their report is July 4, 2008.

That is 67 days.

Sixty-seven days is not "within 30 days".

In fact, when Jackman says:

The Honourable Clyde Jackman, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, said the department will now review the recommendations provided by the consultant, ArtsExperts.ca, and determine its future course of action.

it means he's already failed to "indicate the action government will take on a report's recommendations within 60 days". You can't very well "indicate" an action that you haven't yet "determined", can you?

Back on March 4th of this year, Rob Antle reported for The Telegram:

The Williams administration says its promised policy of making all government-commissioned reports public within 30 days of their completion remains in effect, despite some recent exceptions.

Officials in the premier's office said the government is now reviewing its files to see what other unreleased reports may be gathering dust.

"There are instances when that deadline simply cannot be met due to a variety of issues," Elizabeth Matthews, a spokeswoman for Premier Danny Williams, said Monday.

If the "policy... remains in effect", that must mean — right, Liz? — that it was put into effect in the first place.

In which case — right, Liz? — it should be no problem for anyone to obtain, or produce, a copy of said policy.

A month later, the intrepid Mr. Antle followed up his initial report, and on April 5th noted:

A search for government-commissioned reports that should have been made public under the Williams administration's promised 30-day rule has now exceeded 30 days, with no indication of whether any such reports exist, or when they will be released.

Officials in the premier's office did not provide information on the results of the search before deadline, following Telegram inquiries on the issue Thursday and Friday.

Given that it's now six months later, has this report on reports been completed yet?

Has it been released?

Hi, Liz!