Finance Committee on Dec. 3rd, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

We'll have to move on. We may come back to that.

Mr. Jean, please.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Catta, on that note, do you have a background in marketing?

[Jean-Michel Catta]

No, I have a background in communications, but I've been involved in advertising for quite some time.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

In fact, most marketing experts will tell you that there is such a campaign awareness as “top of the mind awareness”. Are you familiar with that phrase?

[Jean-Michel Catta]

Yes.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

What does the phrase mean to you in relation to marketing?

[Jean-Michel Catta]

Essentially, again in terms of the testing that we do, there are two things we test. One is what's called unaided recall. Without prompting, we ask people, “Do you remember seeing an ad...?”—on the economic action plan, for instance—and then we see what the response is.

Alternatively we ask, “Do you remember seeing an ad from the Government of Canada?” This testing is generally done shortly after the campaign has run. This is again a way for us to measure the awareness and the effectiveness of the campaign.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

In fact, most large corporations that deal with top of the mind awareness campaigns understand that you don't get media bang for your buck. They are to build a traditional brand that people have confidence in, such as Coca-Cola, General Electric—some of the more recognized brands.

I see you are shaking your head in agreement with me. Is that correct?

[Jean-Michel Catta]

Yes, absolutely.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Is that in essence what the Government of Canada...? I have a background in marketing and I saw the ads a lot. It seemed to me that what they were trying to build was confidence in the brand itself and confidence in the ongoing economic action plan.

Is that fair to say?

[Jean-Michel Catta]

Yes, absolutely. I go back to the economic uncertainty that Canada is currently facing. The main objective of the campaign is to raise awareness of the economic action plan, of the measures and also the benefits that the plan contains, and awareness that Canadians can avail themselves of these benefits.

In essence, it's raising the awareness and also driving people, for instance, to the economic action plan website, which includes information of all kinds on how to access...first of all, to know what the economic action plan is all about, and also, as I said, for people to know how to avail themselves of the benefits.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

In fact, it sounds like it's working because Mr. Simms has obviously gone to the website himself. It sounds like many members of the Liberal Party have, so it seems obviously the campaign is working.

One of the parts of the action plan, it appeared to me, was that the government wanted to get Canadians to feel confident in their government, that they were actually doing something about this economic crisis in the world. Is that fair to say?

[Jean-Michel Catta]

I go back to the point I made earlier. Again our research shows—and it's been quite consistent on that front—that people are interested and want to know what the plan is, that they expect the government to have a plan and they want to know the details. Particularly given the economic uncertainty, all the more reason for Canadians to want information about the government's plan.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

In fact, we've heard testimony at this committee time and time again that Canadian corporations are saving up money. They're afraid of investing because of the economic climate in the world. It would appear to me part of this plan seems to be not just to make sure that somebody is in control of the Canadian government and they have confidence in what's going on, but also to encourage companies to invest because the Government of Canada is directly involved. Is that fair to say?

[Jean-Michel Catta]

Absolutely. At the end of the day, from our perspective here at Finance, it is a multi-purpose campaign in the sense that it's a pretty high-level campaign that tries to address, as you said, the confidence issue, tries to convey information about the action plan and about specific initiatives in the plan so that Canadians can avail themselves of these programs and benefits.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

In fact during—

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thirty seconds.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

—your communication expertise and your training, you probably became aware of subliminal messaging. In fact many people who see ads don't really see them, but they go in to your mind and they give you confidence in that particular product. Is that fair to say as well?

[Jean-Michel Catta]

From a Finance perspective, what I would say is that our campaigns are fact based. It is about what the plan is, what the purpose of the plan is, and what the programs and the benefits are.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Based on your research it has been a success.

[Jean-Michel Catta]

Based on our research it has been effective.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay, thank you, Mr. Jean.

Monsieur Caron, s'il vous plaÎt.

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all our witnesses for being here with us. I want to talk about another topic and that is debt.

There are two kinds of debt. There is market debt and non-market debt. I am interested in two elements in particular in the revision in the 2012-2013 supplementary estimates (B). They are unmatured debt and other interest costs.

Were there any changes made to the non-market debt situation? Do these changes appear in the 2012-2013 supplementary estimates (B)?

[Brian Pagan]

In these supplementary estimates, for the first time the government is presenting its interest costs against that in two separate ways. The separate statutory presentation of the interest on unmatured debt, which is the outstanding bonds and certificates of indebtedness that have not yet become due, and then a separate entry for other interest costs, which is the interest against our liabilities for public service pension plans and some trust and consolidated specified purpose accounts.

The total interest as reflected in these estimates is $27.7 billion broken out into these two separate statutory entries. That is a change from the main estimates of $1,194,000,000, and that change is driven by the changing forecast of interest rates, both short term and long term.