Shocking revelation on the PHANTOM JOB CREATION DATA!

Wait, is it technically phantom data if it exists somewhere, but the government would prefer not to know what it actually says? Because that's what we seem to have here, at least judging from the press release that I'm reading right now as me and a handful of bored camera crews stand around the Foyer waiting for Gerard Kennedy to emerge from the House.

11:45:22 AM
Oh, thank goodness: other reporters! I am spared the embarrassment of being the only potential questioner, which is lucky, because if there's one thing that is beyond my liveblogging ability, it's both asking and typing the question at the same time. I prefer to mutter darkly and let the liveblog speak for itself.

So far, no sign of GK, but I think that's probably because they're hoping a few other media types turn up.

11:48:02 AM
Lights, camera, Gerard! Oh, I'm disappointed: no props. Still, this appears to be a very, very serious matter -- not one that would benefit from research office jesters bearing giant cheques -- about the continuing efforts of the Conservatives to conceal data -- particularly the number of jobs created. Despite the minister's "convenient denials", they DO TOO have access to that information, yet the government still pretends that it knows nothing. "It's keeping it from Canadians for one reason: because the program is failing." DUH-duh!

11:50:32 AM
Shoutout to the PBO, who, according to Kennedy, won't be able to report on the progress of the plan until the New Year, but as far as he can tell -- and he has research to back it up -- it just isn't working.

11:51:30 AM
First question -- isn't winter the time of -- well, not so much construction going on? Won't more jobs be created in the spring? Kennedy reminds us that the whole idea was to help Canadians in the short term -- that's right, isn't the recession over? -- but municipalities are now musing darkly about cancelling projects because it's just taking too long to go through the process. The point is that the government is hiding data -- but not, apparently, successfully enough to fool Gerard Kennedy.

11:53:21 AM
Asked how he knows that municipalities are, in fact, required to report job creation data to the provincial government, Kennedy points to the helpful graphic on the aforementioned press release, which is a copy of a Canada/Ontario infrastructure report form, and does indeed include boxes for average number of temporary jobs.

"We're just trying to make it very explicit in black and white that the government has been misleading the media and the public" on the number of jobs created, he stresses. Helpful!  

11:55:51 AM
Kennedy notes that, if *a* shovel is in the ground on a project, it gets credit for all jobs created -- which is very generous, he points out. But at the moment, all that data is flowing into a "black hole".

11:56:43 AM
The Telegraph Journal's Rob Linke has a question about New Brunswick, which seems to involve jobs created under projects that had been already announced provincially, and Kennedy agrees that there is a lot of re-announcing going on, and the federal government just hasn't been able to convince provincial goverments to kick in their share of the cash. There are still, he reminds us, thousands of people out of work, and it doesn't look like the construction industry has gotten much out of this deal.

The Liberals do, however, think that the plan can still work -- and they have ideas on how to do that with which they will annoy the government in the near future.

11:59:18 AM
"Hiding the information is just one part of how they've tried to evade responsibility for a program that isn't working," is, apparently, code for "Please ask me questions about my party's position on the HST!" Only nobody apparently told Kennedy, and he looks a bit miffed at having to respond. He reminds the gaggle that his party has always been behind the idea of harmonization in principle, but they haven't seen the deal yet, and "feel free to criticize it." That said, it doesn't sound like he's planning to go all Bill Murdoch/Randy Hillier on the upcoming ways and means motion.

12:02:07 PM
Kennedy stresses that they want to know what kinds of deals may have been made "behind closed doors" -- I think he's still talking about the HST deal -- and looks relieved when the next reporter switches back to the just-announced release of the fourth and final "probation report." He predicts "a very expensive fairy tale" that will have the unfortunate result of leaving Canadians to be "misled by their government" -- but he thinks that they may regret that, as "misusing their power to advertise" may eventually lead to punishment from the electorate. Ooh. When? When?

12:04:38 PM
Kennedy once again suggests that hapless and overworked bureaucrats are being forced to sign off on dubious arrangements, and calls the resulting situation the effect of a government "hellbent" on misusing the powers of office. They made the choices, they designed the program -- on their head it be, is the gist.

And --  that's it, apparently. But still -- newsish?