Undisclosure

So the plot thickens.

Elections Newfoundland and Labrador is chronically incapable of posting public campaign finance disclosures within a calendar year of the statutory deadline for parties and candidates to submit their paperwork. That phenomenon has been documented in this corner ad nauseam.

More disturberesting, however, is the fact that at some point in the first half of 2017, Elections NL took upon itself to relieve us of all this disclosure by removing parties' annual financial disclosures from before 2009, and party election-campaign disclosures from before 2007, from its website.

On February 27, 2017, the Elections NL website still held an archive of "annual" and "election" campaign finance reports going back to 1996, when such reports were first required under amendments to the provincial Elections Act.

Sometime on or before June 18th, those archival reports were quietly bit-bucketed.

There's probably an explanation.

Not a very good or reasonable one, but an explanation nevertheless.

Disclosure delayed (V)

February 2019 is now nearly half over.

At Elections NL, there is still no sign of any political finance disclosure for calendar year 2017, nor for any by-election campaign held so far during the life of the current legislature.

Incompetence

It is January 22, 2019.

Over at Elections NL, there is still no sign of the 2017 political finance disclosures for registered provincial political parties, nor of the finance disclosures for the candidates who ran in that year's by-election in Mount Pearl North.

(Previous post)

Disclosure delayed (IV)

Per s. 299 of the Elections Act, the detailed reports of each registered political party's incoming financial contributions must be filed with Elections NL on or before April 1 of each year. For calendar year 2017, that period expired on April 1, 2018.

Per. s. 304 of the same act, the report of each candidate's incoming campaign contributions must be filed with Elections NL within four months of polling day. For the by-election held in Mount Pearl North on November 21, 2017, that deadline came and went on March 21, 2018.

In both cases — the annual contribution reports for parties for calendar years 2017, and the election contribution reports for the four candidates who ran in the November 2017 by-election — the documentation, which was due into Elections NL at least eight months ago, is still nowhere to be found on that office's website.

We are now ten days into calendar year 2019.

From the Memory Hole, episode infinity at this point

From a front-page report in the St. John's Telegram of August 15, 2009.

In light of certain other recent developments, it's almost as if there was a pattern or something.

Briefings only oral for OramNo paper trail outlining issues in Health department
Rob Antle

It has a budget of $2.6 billion and is responsible for ensuring the well-being of more than half a million residents of Newfoundland and Labrador, but the Department of Health and Community Services says it does not have a single scrap of paper or e-mail provided to brief incoming minister Paul Oram about his new job. 

The Telegram made a request under provincial access to information laws for any briefing materials provided to, or prepared for, Oram.

The request included paper and electronic records.

The response? Nothing. 

Oram said in an interview he prefers verbal briefings. 

"I didn't ask for any briefing notes," the minister said. "To tell you the truth, I don't get much out of briefing notes. I get more out of people sitting and talking to me about what we've got to do."

Disclosure delayed (III)

In 27 days it will be 2019.

Over at Elections NL, there is still no sign of the 2017 political financial disclosures which have been in the hands of the elections office for months. Public release of the documents was promised "in the near future"... back in August.

Is it the near future yet?

That was the same time, incidentally, that the same elections administrator said that financial reports from the November 21, 2017 Mount Pearl North by-election would be finalized "in the coming weeks."

The candidates in that by-election, per s. 304 of the Elections Act, had until March 21, 2018 to submit that documentation.

Disclosure delayed (II)

With 41 days to go before it's 2019, the most recent Elections NL political finance disclosures are from calendar year 2016.

And on the eve of the anniversary of the electoral event, there is likewise no sign of the campaign finance disclosures for the November 21, 2017 by-election in Mount Pearl North.

Disclosure delayed

With seven weeks to go before it's 2019, the most recent Elections NL political finance disclosures are from calendar year 2016.

With two weeks to go before the anniversary of the electoral event, there is likewise no sign of the campaign finance disclosures for the November 2017 by-election in Mount Pearl North.

Lake Melville, December 2017

Yes, that's open water.

Democracy

The people have spoken. From two recent VOCM Questions of the Day.

Juneday

It is June 1, 2017.


As of today, Elections NL has still not posted a disclosure of campaign contributions to the candidates who ran in the November 2015 provincial general election.


In one nod to very-delayed accountability, the disclosure of contributions to central party coffers was posted on May 18th. Contrary to the provisions of the Elections Act, Elections NL did not distinguish contributions made during the campaign period from other contributions during that calendar year.

Mayday

It is May 1st, 2017.

Elections Newfoundland and Labrador has still not posted annual and campaign-period political financing disclosure reports for calendar year and election period 2015.