Evidence of meeting #57 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was businesses.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Canadians remain frustrated, having seen that the minister made this decision and that it seems to be a contravention of federal law without consequence.
As my colleague pointed out earlier, a small business that had tens of thousands of dollars taken from their business in ill-gotten gains by another individual would expect restitution. Do you think that it's reasonable for Canadians to expect restitution when it's deemed that federal laws were broken in the awarding of a federal contract?
Communications Professional, As an Individual
What I do know is that the Ethics Commissioner thoroughly reviewed this matter over a matter of months. The Ethics Commissioner did not find fault with the work, did not find fault with the need for the work, and did not find fault with the contract amount. This was an issue of recusal, which the minister has acknowledged and apologized for.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Madam, do you appreciate the frustration that Canadians have when they feel like there isn't accountability in government and they then lose confidence in their public institutions because they see a case of a federal law being broken and it looks like insider back-slapping and ministers helping their well-connected and well-heeled friends?
Can you appreciate why that would undermine Canadians' confidence in public institutions like Parliament and cabinet?
Communications Professional, As an Individual
What I can speak to is that the time we were engaged to do the work as a supplier was a time when Canadian businesses were frustrated because they couldn't access the information that they required in finding emergency supports like the wage subsidy, loans, eligibility and how-to-apply rules. Those were things that should be simply accessed, without the need to dive through ministry press releases at a time that was absolutely unprecedented. I think that it was very reasonable for the minister's office to use outside professional services to help get that information to Canadians as widely and expeditiously as possible.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
But not services offered by her best friend—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Thank you, Mr. Barrett.
Ms. Alvaro, thank you.
Next we'll go to Ms. Saks for six minutes.
Liberal
Ya'ara Saks Liberal York Centre, ON
Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Ms. Alvaro, for joining us today.
Ms. Alvaro, can you tell me how many members of your team from Pomp & Circumstance worked on the $16,950 contract awarded in March 2020 at the height of the pandemic?
Communications Professional, As an Individual
There were five members of our team, ranging from graphic designer to video editor to social and digital media specialist to media trainer.
Liberal
Ya'ara Saks Liberal York Centre, ON
Thank you for that.
You said in your opening remarks, or in your comments previously, that it was 103 hours of work and 56 products on a $16,950 contract, which would come out to about $164 per hour to reach 960,000 small and medium-sized businesses in this country, and 3.2 million Canadians.
While my colleague talks about frustration, I'm a little bit frustrated about the misrepresentation of facts, because I'd say that would be pretty good value for money. Would you agree?
Communications Professional, As an Individual
It is remarkably good value per dollar, in my opinion.
We produced 20 shareable graphics in English and French for business podcasts and Instagram Lives, which we also arranged, including six opportunities with the kit—the Bay Street Bull, Katie Zeppieri's “Together We Rise”, Amber Mac, “The Brand is Female”, and Women of Influence.
We produced 18 social media graphics in English and French in both story and static post-carousel format to simplify the supports that were available to small business.
We produced one seven-minute video with cut-downs to showcase those supports, with nine graphic video slates.
We conducted two media video training sessions and produced one graphic downloadable one-pager in English and French to highlight all supports available to small businesses, including eligibility and how-to-apply instructions for emergency wage subsidies and loans.
We developed four “ask me anything” graphics in social media in English and French to allow for real-time answers to any user-generated question about how to access supports.
We produced a social media content calendar with all captions pre-populated.
We developed an extensive media list for outreach to disseminate information about the supports and tools available. Those media impressions reached 5,146,800 Canadians through those impressions alone.
I think, by virtually any standard, that represented extremely good value per dollar.
Liberal
Ya'ara Saks Liberal York Centre, ON
Thank you, Ms. Alvaro, for that very extensive list of work that was produced from a $16,950 contract. One of my Conservative colleagues who is in attendance today does come from the field of PR communications, and I'm sure, during her own time, assisted on similar projects and would know the value for the dollar.
Ms. Alvaro, have you ever seen—as we saw in March 2020—the volume of demands to a client that you saw from the minister's office in terms of clarification and need for communication and clarity in media requests during that time period?
Communications Professional, As an Individual
Never.
I've also never done as much media training in a single year as I did over the course of the pandemic. In the minister's office alone, their needs had increased somewhere in the neighbourhood of sixfold. The volume of media requests that were coming in to the minister's office—but virtually to all businesses—to have a public presence was extraordinary. It was an extraordinary time.
Liberal
Ya'ara Saks Liberal York Centre, ON
That's right. As the deputy minister said, from time to time it wasn't unusual to outsource contracts for communications in what would have been considered normal times. These were obviously abnormal times.
Do you think the four members of the ministerial team could have handled that kind of volume without external support?
Communications Professional, As an Individual
No. I think they are very capable, but I think that given the volume, the increase in workload, the fact that decisions were coming down daily, the fact that the information that businesses were looking to access was changing on a consistent basis, and also that the minister's office and the ministry, to my knowledge, did not do the digital work we do.... They don't set up Instagram Live. They aren't looking for that kind of access point to Canadians.
I think bringing in outside resources not just to deal with the volume but also to innovate a bit, to use resources that were available to them to get that information to Canadians, was an important move.
Liberal
Ya'ara Saks Liberal York Centre, ON
Would you say that in a time of crisis, this kind of clear communication was critical at that time to small and medium-sized businesses and Canadians across the country who were facing real financial challenges in the face of lockdowns and the pandemic?
Communications Professional, As an Individual
Yes, and it wasn't unique to the minister's office; there were businesses in all categories that were looking to communicate both internally with their internal stakeholders as well as externally. We refer to that time as the “great pivot”. It was a time when businesses had to move from their normal operations and their normal communication operations in order to communicate everything, all of the supports that were available through their own channels, and in the case of the minister's office, we needed to get all those out.
Liberal
Ya'ara Saks Liberal York Centre, ON
I have about 30 seconds and I have one quick question.
How critical do you feel this kind of communication is in terms of pushing back against misinformation and disinformation that could have been out at that time or in the times that we're in today?
Communications Professional, As an Individual
I think it was absolutely critical.
Liberal
Ya'ara Saks Liberal York Centre, ON
Ms. Alvaro, during that time, do you feel that you were able to help Canadians get the help they needed?
Communications Professional, As an Individual
I do. I think there were a number of supports available to small businesses. Information on the emergency wage subsidy eligibility requirements and how-to-apply rules, as well as information around loans, was changing. I think—
Communications Professional, As an Individual
—it's very difficult to find that information buried on ministry web pages, and I think we used tools, digital tools, that were available to us, to get that information out expeditiously.