Government Operations Committee on March 10th, 2011

[Anne Marie Smart]

Yes, $4 million, but we haven't allocated....You were asking about what has been prepared or allocated—

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

So you have nothing in the can for placement for advertising as of March 22?

[Anne Marie Smart]

Not yet, no. We don't know what's in the budget, so we literally have to see the budget, and then we know there's only a week before the end of the fiscal year.

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Am I supposing from what you're saying that you have nothing done at this point, but that you have allocated the $4 million?

[Anne Marie Smart]

We've allocated the $4 million. We know we have a week, and anything that is not spent is returned to the fiscal framework.

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Okay, thank you.

This is a kind of responsibility.... It upsets me quite significantly. We know that recently there has been a lot of change with the moniker of the federal government, and we have lots of articles by the Canadian Press on this very issue. The moniker of the Government of Canada has literally been changed to “the Harper government”.

My questions are on the common look and feel. We know, for example, that the federal identity program and the common look and feel policies exist, and yet they seem to be now being changed so that you could use the Harper moniker.

I'm just going to quote from the Canadian Press article, which says:

Civil servants in at least six departments now say the naming policy comes from “the Centre”—meaning the Prime Minister's Office and the Privy Council Office.

The branding of the Government of Canada ensures from an international perspective that internationally we're known as the “Government of Canada” and even that the people of our country know that this is Government of Canada official information. How is it that we can now be using “the Harper government”?

Further to that, was there a communiqué verbally or in writing that made that dictum?

[Anne Marie Smart]

I can start on your latter part. There was no directive whatsoever issued, to my knowledge. I'm in the Privy Council Office, so there was nothing driven....

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Yet it has been reported that six people in six different departments are saying it.

[Monique Lebel-Ducharme, Assistant Secretary, Strategic Communications and Ministerial Affairs, Treasury Board Secretariat]

There's nothing in the communications policy or the FIP policy that either prescribes or prohibits the use of any language or words, and the identifier you're talking about in FIP is the FIP signature, which is the—

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

So how could it be that so many official Government of Canada websites are now using the Harper moniker?

[Monique Lebel-Ducharme]

It's in the text of a news release; it's not in the identifier of the news release. All of our news releases have an identifier, and the identifier is the FIP signature, which is at the top of the document. It's the flag, with the signature of the department or the Government of Canada, and at the bottom the Canada wordmark. Those are the identifiers of the Government of Canada.

As to the information or the contents within the news release, there's nothing in our policies that prescribes or prohibits how that language is—

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Madame.

Madame Bourgeois.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning everyone, and thank you for being here.

Anything having to do with communications is always fascinating. It is an area we are not very familiar with.

A while ago, Michelle d'Auray, of Treasury Board Secretariat, appeared before the committee to discuss the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada. Based on what you just told us, you apply that policy in your work. Is that correct?

[Monique Lebel-Ducharme]

Yes.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

And when you apply the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada, you have no choice but to apply the Federal Identity Program Policy as well. Do you work with that policy?

[Monique Lebel-Ducharme]

Absolutely.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

If I understand correctly, under the Federal Identity Program Policy, the Privy Council Office must approve all communications. Is that correct?

[Monique Lebel-Ducharme]

The approval procedure is not set out in the Federal Identity Program Policy.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Which policy is it in then? Is it the government communications policy?

[Monique Lebel-Ducharme]

The government communications policy.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Recently, the Federal Identity Program Policy has not been applied properly. I have here a number of newspaper articles that mention how the current government changes the word “Canada”. My colleague also talked about that earlier.

I would remind my colleagues that the Federal Identity Program Policy governs the use of three official corporate symbols. Those are Canadian coats of arms—in other words, Canadian logos such as the House of Commons logo—the flag symbol and the “Canada” wordmark. Under that policy, the terms “Government of Canada” or “Canadian government” must appear in all government communications. Those are the titles that must be used.

Unfortunately, the newspapers have been reporting something different for a while now. Public servants in certain departments said they were ordered to use the term “Harper government” instead of the “Government of Canada”.

How is it that the government corporate identity is being misused, misrepresented and altered when its use is an integral part of the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada? How can that happen? Please explain that to me.

[Monique Lebel-Ducharme]

The policy you refer to governs the use of the three symbols. It sets out how documents must be identified. So it targets document identification. Every Government of Canada news release prepared by a department contains two things—

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Forgive me for interrupting, but please do not repeat what I just said. I asked you how it is possible that the most important part of the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada, in other words, the Federal Identity Program Policy, is literally being disregarded. Whenever we have had a presentation, from either Treasury Board Secretariat or the Privy Council Office, we have been told that every communication is approved by the Privy Council Office. Please explain why this is being allowed.

[Monique Lebel-Ducharme]

You are talking about the Federal Identity Program Policy.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Yes.