Wakeham, Pardy, and a Friday News Dump

By Roger Bill

When governments want to bury bad news, hoping it will go unnoticed or quickly fade away they sometimes schedule media releases for Friday afternoon. In the trade it’s called the Friday News Dump.

At 1:35 p.m. on Friday October 16 the Wakeham government took a dump.

The morning editorial meeting was long over in local newsrooms. Reporters were working on their assignments. Edit suites were busy. At best some editor was going to write what is called a Rip and Read story or just take the press release and regurgitate it.

That is the moment Craig Pardy’s Department of Finance chose to release the Public Accounts for 2025/26, the record of revenues and expenditures for the previous fiscal year.

The Press Release

First, the government patted itself on the back for filing the 2025-26 balance sheet two weeks before the statutory deadline. The media release claims it reflects the Provincial government’s commitment to “transparency and timely fiscal reporting.”

Then, in an object lesson of burying bad news, Craig Pardy’s media release first tells us the 2025/26 deficit was only $5.8 million more than forecast. Whew! Not bad, the voter says.

Then, the voter is told revenue was up. Offshore oil royalties? $350 million more than the previous year. Personal and business tax revenue exceeded their forecasts. Wow! The government collected $420 million more than it had forecast.

The Missing Bit

The media release claims the Government “continued to strengthen” the province’s “long-term financial position.” but nowhere does it say anything about the total deficit for the 2025/26 fiscal year.

The question the media release dumped on Friday avoids is this: if the government collected $420 million more than it forecast, then why isn’t there a surplus north of $400 million? Why is there still a deficit even if it is only $5.8 million more than forecast?

The answer is the Government expenditures overshot their forecasts and that wasn’t in the media release on Friday.  

The media release says the government “continued to invest in key priorities” like the $744 million the government spent on capital acquisitions like “health care facilities, schools and other public infrastructure.”  

That could be interpreted to mean the cost of brick-and-mortar investments came in higher than projected? Well, anybody who is building anything these days know prices have gone up, but the media release didn’t say capital costs overshot estimates. The release only says capital costs were $744 million. 

The Devil in the Details

 The answer to the question of where the Wakeham government spent more than it forecast is found in a table titled “Key Financial Highlights” in the Public Accounts document. “Salaries and employee benefits” overshot their estimate by $108 million. “Operating costs” overshot the budget estimate by $73 million. “Professional services” overshot the budget estimate by $90 million.

Then add another $161 million overshoot on the expense side for what Mr. Pardy’s department calls “Other” expenses and the additional $420 million in revenue highlighted in Friday’s media release is wiped out. 

Transparency?

Finance Minister Craig Pardy was not available to answer questions on the Friday when the media release was dumped. Instead, the release contained a statement attributed to Mr. Pardy with words like ‘responsible decisions,” “continued success,” “balanced approach,” “priorities that matter,” and “transparency.” 

Think Tony Wakeham’s breaking of the referendum campaign promise is a one-off? Think his government is committed to “transparency?”

Tony Wakeham’s first year in power is marked by blowing $400 million past the expenditure forecast in his first budget and that fact is missing from the media release accompanying the release of the 2025/26 public accounts. 

Was Tony’s a good dump? It looks like it. There was no mention of the release of the Public Accounts the following Saturday or Sunday on the CBC, NTV, VOCM, or the Telegram internet sites.  The business news service, allnewfoundlandlabrador.com was the only exception. It published an update to its Friday edition, and the update remained its lead story throughout the following weekend.  (Editor’s note; Roger Bill’s son Alex Bill is the Editor of the provincial business news service allnewfoundlandlabrador.com)

The Friday News Dump isn’t a new technique and maybe calling it ‘cynical’ is overstating a practice that politicians often resort to. In some ways it’s hard not to give it some grudging respect. 

For example, what if Tony Wakeham had told Craig Pardy to release the Public Accounts the previous Friday, the Friday before the three-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend and really bury it?  Well, it wouldn’t top breaking the Referendum campaign promise, but in the world of media pros and reporters it would have been a memorable move.