Government Operations Committee on Nov. 22nd, 2011

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

That's been years, though--

[Marc Bélisle]

Yes, but--

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

It was 2006.

Well, anyway, maybe we could call them as witnesses some day and review their budget sometime. Perhaps committee members would be interested in that.

That concludes John's time, so we'll move on.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Peter Braid and Ron are going to share.

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to share my time with Mr. Cannan.

Thank you to our witnesses for being here this afternoon.

I have just a couple of questions. The first question or two relate to the special adviser on human smuggling, just to sort of segue from Mr. Armstrong's line of questioning as well.

I would ask if you could just correct or confirm this presumption. I presume this is a PCO expense because the mandate of the special adviser on human smuggling is so government-wide that it's appropriate that it's a PCO expense, as opposed to CIC or CBSA. It touches such a wide range of mandates and departments. Is that correct?

[Marc Bélisle]

That is correct. It's also not the first time we've done that at PCO. The Afghanistan task force was another similar initiative.

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Is the mandate for the special adviser time limited or is this a new existing role?

[Marc Bélisle]

It's time limited for now. Funds were being requested for this year and the subsequent year--for now.

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

For this year and one subsequent year?

[Marc Bélisle]

Exactly.

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Merci.

Moving on to the advertising corporate identity initiative, the supplementary estimates (B) request is $200,000.

[Technical Difficulty--Editor]

Sorry, I'm doing some advertising for Research In Motion, which is based in my riding--

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

On the $200,000 amount, I completely understand and completely support the need and the initiative to make sure that when the Government of Canada is advertising, Canadian citizens recognize that it is a message from the government. I think that's the purpose of the initiative. Is that correct? Could you just explain what the $200,000 will be spent on?

[Bill Pentney]

Yes, I would be happy to. Thank you for the question.

As I said, the federal identity program has established a look and feel for the Government of Canada, and as advertising has diversified, as website presence and other government communication activities have diversified.... I have a very interesting slide presentation that sort of mashes together a variety of different government websites. Although there is an element of commonality around them, if you look at them closely enough, you would be hard-pressed, in some circumstance,s to understand that they're all from the Government of Canada.

We're using the money to do some of our own in-house work but mainly to hire an outside firm that can give us some advice on the ways in which modern advertising and communication vehicles are being developed, to try to attach more of a kind of a hook when you see something. It's advice on what works and what doesn't work.

I'll speak for myself and not my staff and say that we have a lot of amateur ideas about what might be useful as ways of grabbing Canadians' attention and having that imprint very quickly established for them. We're thinking probably of getting in some professionals who do this for a living. This is not a standing expertise that exists within my group and it should not exist within my group within the Government of Canada, but we're letting a contract to try to have some creative and professional expertise brought to bear to help us.

As I say, we have very interesting meetings with a lot of people that are generating a lot of good ideas not founded in any research science or experience, and we're trying to draw in some professional advice to say what kinds of adjustments could be made. I'll give you a couple of examples that have come from professionals. Some companies have found that having a common voice attached to their television ads is a way of simply reinforcing and reminding people--

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

That's interesting.

[Bill Pentney]

--that this voice is attached. Some fairly simple visual identifiers and common looks can be useful in conveying that.

The Government of Canada is communicating with Canadians about dozens and dozens of different programs that really aren't related in any intrinsic way, other than the fact that they are brought to you by the Government of Canada. So finding the right way of capturing enough awareness so that people know this is a federal program and that this is where they can go to look, on the one side, and on the other side, accommodating that diversity.... We're unlike any private corporation in the diversity and scope of our reach across the country and in the diversity of services and products we're trying to communicate to Canadians.

It has been a bit of a challenge, but fundamentally we're hiring some outside expertise to help us.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

There's about a minute left for Ron if he has a question.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for your generosity and your compassion. I'll be very succinct.

Thanks, gentlemen.

I want to follow up on my colleague Mike Wallace's comments. I come from B.C. and used to be on the fisheries committee, so I'm very familiar with the Cohen commission. What was their initial budget?

[Yvan Roy]

Originally.... Well, you have to go back a little bit. The commission was created in November 2009 and was to report 18 months later. However, there was an understanding that there was a good chance it would become more complicated than originally envisaged, so an interim report was produced.

For the first year, around $11 million was spent. For 2011-12, with the $10.6 million we're seeking from Parliament, we believe the commission will be spending around $11.5 million. So it's $10.6 million plus $800,000 that was already in the main estimates, for a total of about $11.4 million.

Given that there will be an extension in the hearings of the commission for the reason that I'm sure you're familiar with--the virus--there is a possibility that they will go a little bit above the $11.4 million and to the $11.5 million I'm talking about here. But we will see how much it's going to cost once the hearings take place and we hear from the commission.

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

On those 15 organizations that are receiving funding, is it public information how much has been allocated to date?

[Yvan Roy]

I don't know how much public information has been given. If you're interested I can look into this and perhaps communicate that information through the chair if it's in the public domain.

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

If you can do that, I would appreciate it.

I have a quick question on the $1.1 million on strategic review. It's always good to see savings. Approximately what percentage of your budget is that?

[Marc Bélisle]

The total exercise generated a 5% reduction in our budget.

[Bill Pentney]

The $1.1 million is--