Ignorance as policy

Lest anybody accuse the Harper Cons of being the only government in Canada which makes far too many decisions based on a complete lack of information, Joe looks to have uncovered another glaring (if unsurprising) example:

The subsequent request to Executive Council resulted in a phone call from Garett Murray, the manager of corporate planning at central management services with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, on June 28, 2010, to discuss the matter. The central management services branch provides support to intergovernmental affairs through a shared services agreement.

Murray advised that there is no one document containing a comprehensive list of barriers to trade and investment between the three westernmost provinces, but proposed that the provincial government would create a new record that had the information. It was further agreed that such a record would also contain the source for each barrier listed.

Unfortunately, the Wall government reneged on the offer without explaining why.

In a letter dated July 22, 2010, Bonita Cairns, the executive director of corporate services with Executive Council, provided a one-page record prepared by intergovernmental affairs staff listing five “general examples” of barriers to trade and investment that currently exist between the three westernmost provinces.

“A comprehensive list of barriers does not currently exist,” the document states.

In other words: months after the Wall government signed onto the WEPA to permanently tie the hands of Saskatchewan's public sector based on its faith-based belief in the need to eradicate mythical trade barriers, it hadn't yet lifted a finger to determine what barriers actually existed. And that looks to me like a far more damning statement about the Sask Party's decision-making process than its later refusal to do its homework after the fact.