Dunderdale Govt. believes Opposition is Communications Savvy?

So the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador needs a lesson in communication - a $150,000 tutor - so to speak.

How many communications experts do we employ full time?

What do all these people do?

How much do we pay them?

Unfortunately the findings of the report including advice remain secret to the Government. The Fleishman-Hillard Group is an international firm with an advisory Board that includes Leon Panetta - former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). I guess Premier Dunderdale and Co. are really concerned about secrecy.

So this sweeping review of government communications - using $150,000 of our money - will only benefit one political party - not our province overall. This is unacceptable and is an abuse of taxpayer dollars.

It has been pointed out by government that Communications Directors are no longer political staff but rather members of the Public Service. If this is the case - the information delivered to government by Fleishman-Hillard - should be available to all MHA's on all sides of the House. In this way communications advice - that is information being distributed to the people of the province - can be "enhanced" for all elected officials.

The "strong united caucus" that Premier Dunderdale talks about should have no problem communicating messages and should not be in need of help from the outside.

The Premier says if they were trying to be secret - they would not table things in the House. Please then Premier table the report completed by Fleishman-Hillard on communications and further explain why the government had to go outside the province to learn how to communicate with the people of the province.

Further if the Premier does not make the report public - then I assume the Premier and her Cabinet have determined that neither party in Opposition could learn anything from the report - thereby admitting the problem in communications is theirs and theirs alone.

The timing of the review certainly points back to Muskrat Falls.

How many polls were completed on Muskrat Falls by the government?
What were the results of all those polls?
Will the Premier confirm that all communications staff has been duly trained and or replaced to meet the findings and recommendations of Fleishman-Hillard?

As for Fleishman-Hillard - they confuse me - communications experts who themselves can't decide whether to use "FleishmanHillard" or "Fleishman-Hillard" on their own website and communications.