labradore

"We can't allow things that are inaccurate to stand." — The Word of Our Dan, February 19, 2008.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Hurry! Hurry hard!

Gary Kean of the Other Quebec Daily Newspaper reports this morning:

The latest plan was endorsed by what chairperson Bob Simmonds described as a “hurried” meeting of the Board of Regents Tuesday night.
“Hurried”?

Now, that's curious.

Less than eighteen months ago, then-edjukashin Minister Joan Burke was pleading for patience:
Sir Wilfred Grenfell College on the west coast of Newfoundland, which has been waiting for independence from its parent university for years, will have to wait awhile longer, Education Minister Joan Burke said Friday.

[...]

"We are just at the point, I guess, with a busy schedule in the house of assembly and certainly the tedious work in developing the legislation, that we didn't have sufficient time … for the full debate that it deserved," Burke told CBC News.
Last fall, she brushed off concern about the delay:
“I want to stress that this doesn’t mean that our position on Grenfell has changed, I was really hoping to bring it forward in this session because I think it is a very positive piece of legislation for the west coast and in particular Corner Brook,” Minister Burke told The Western Star Wednesday.

[...]

Her reassurance to Grenfell was this was a time delay as opposed to a shift in thinking or change in direction.
During Budget Blowout 2009, she insisted:
Burke continues to avoid putting any timelines on when Grenfell’s autonomy will be brought forth in the legislature, but said government’s commitment has unwavered.

“Obviously, to give Grenfell more autonomy has taken longer than we all anticipated originally,” she said. “ ... At this time, I can’t exactly say when it is going to be in the legislature.”
And in May, her successor in office Dr. Darin Luther King maintained:

MR. BUTLER: I ask the minister: Is this delay linked to a re-evaluation of whether or not this government should give Sir Wilfred Grenfell College full university status?

MR. KING: Absolutely not, Mr. Speaker. We are continuing to work through a process with officials at Grenfell College and Memorial University and our own officials at the Department of Education. We intend to move forward, and when the legislation is ready we will have it before the House.

From vague timelines, and no particular rush, and insisting on the time to do things right... to a “hurried” meeting of the Board of Regents Tuesday night, a short-notice announcement on Wednesday at noon, and a press release that didn't come out for another three hours after that.

Why on earth, after taking all that precious, precious time, a “hurried” meeting of the Board of Regents Tuesday night?

And why a bungled announcement on Wednesday afternoon?

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1 Comments:

At 7:36 AM, December 17, 2009 , Blogger Edward Hollett said...

look at the picture in the Star of the two ministers.

That is not the face of "happy".

 

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