The system is cruel and bizarre!! And I believe they could totally release on a set date if they decided to. The SSHRC CGS-M (MA) competition, for example, reliably releases results to candidates online on April 1 annually. And the MA competition has even more layers of bureaucracy/headaches, as the applications are adjudicated by diverse committees at every institution across Canada (when I applied, MA applicants could even specify up to 5 possible institutions at which to hold the award, so the same application could've been adjudicated multiple times). If SSHRC can coordinate that and reliably release results online every April 1, I don't know why the doctoral competition should be any different....