Government Operations Committee on March 10th, 2011

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

What criteria do you use to determine whether the taxpayer is getting good value for the advertising in the contract?

[Louise de Jourdan]

The contract provides for two reviews. Cossette Communications provides services to my group, so it provides corporate services and does all the media buying. At the 18-month mark—that's coming at the beginning of next fiscal year—we will hire a third-party media expert to review the purchases made by Cossette, or the agency of record, to ensure that we are getting the best value for the Government of Canada. They look at their ability to negotiate, and so on and so forth, and the prices they're paying. That's one.

At the two-year mark, there is a review done on every term and condition in the contract to ensure that they're adhering to each of the articles of agreement. The contract also provides for an ad hoc financial review. So at any point in time, the Government of Canada can ask to go into Cossette's offices and randomly pull one of the contract files, review them, and check their finances.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

One of the challenges, with the diversity of media out there, is trying to reach Canadians as effectively as possible and getting the message out. When you talk with your clients, you're limited by the dollars in getting effectiveness in your advertising. What do you do to determine the effectiveness of your advertising campaign?

[Louise de Jourdan]

There are different things at different steps. Before a campaign is completed, there is pre-testing done on several concepts. When you hire an ad agency, typically they'll present a minimum of three concepts. Those concepts are tested in the target population to ensure that the messages resonate with them. That's one safeguard.

At the end of the campaign, as part of the evaluation process, if they're large campaigns where the media exceeds a million dollars, they're automatically subjected to an evaluation process. This includes the testing of the audience—whether or not they remember seeing the ad, whether they can recall the major messages.

In addition to that, other types of measurements are done. Typically, an ad campaign will have a call to action, so in the message it will say call this 1-800 number, visit a website, take a particular social action, and there are ways to measure that. We'll measure how many hits there were on the website, or how many calls there were to the 1-800 number. For the home renovation tax credit, one of the results that was put forward was the number of people who actually claimed the home renovation tax credit. So there are different measures like that.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Twenty seconds, Mr. Cannan.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

I have one quick question.

You've been working in advertising for the government for quite a few years?

[Louise de Jourdan]

Yes.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

What has changed? Were there stricter regulations in 2009? What has changed in the process to make it more efficient?

[Louise de Jourdan]

The overall process, the actual framework, remains the same. But as new things come up.... For instance, we heard earlier about issues around the Internet. I mean, there's new media coming up all the time, so we take care to review all of these things, to make sure our processes are adhering to new technologies.

The other thing my group does is we also take sort of an upstream approach. We don't just look at things at the back end, and we have a very fulsome training and development program to ensure that government communicators have the best and latest tools and knowledge about how to manage their programs.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Mr. Cannan.

Mr. Regan.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I note that Mr. Gourde talked about the $6 million spent on H1N1 advertising, which, as he points out, is designed to save lives. Of course the government also spent $31 million on its economic action plan, which appeared to be self-congratulatory and designed to promote the Conservative Party. That's an interesting statement of the regime's priorities.

Who produces the huge novelty cheques that the government uses?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

We apparently have a point of order here, Mr. Regan.

Mr. Calandra.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

I won't even dignify the stupidity of the regime comment, but it was actually $23 million, I think, that was spent on H1N1, not $6 million.

I suppose that's one of the reasons why the Liberals are so usually off on everything: they don't listen and don't read.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

That's a point of debate, such as it is, rather than a point of order.

Mr. Regan, you may continue.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

So who produces the huge novelty cheques?

[Monique Lebel-Ducharme]

For departments who want to use that kind of tool in announcements, PWGSC has a sample cheque that can be used.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

I take it that the ones that had the great big Conservative logo on there were not produced by Public Works. Is that fair to say?

[Monique Lebel-Ducharme]

And they were not prepared by Government of Canada institutions.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Thank you.

When did the first ad promoting the 2010 budget—approximately a year ago—air? Can you tell me that?

[Anne Marie Smart]

I'd have to check.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Can you get back to us with that information, please?

[Anne Marie Smart]

I can get back to you. I just don't remember.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

That's fair.

Who is informed of pre-test? You said that you pre-test all the ads. In fact you're required to, as I was discussing earlier in terms of the Government of Canada policy. Who's informed of the results of the pre-tests?

[Anne Marie Smart]

Normally the departments and the ministers' offices would be informed of the pre-test, especially if you have to make changes to it as a result of the pre-testing.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

So the political staff at the ministers' offices would be aware of those results because they're informed of it.