Government Operations Committee on June 15th, 2017

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Okay, that's fair enough. I'm just going to move forward, thanks.

With respect to the digital media, obviously, you are able to track how people interact with digital media so much better. How much traffic do you expect is being driven to the Government of Canada websites on the basis of the digital ads?

[Christiane Fox]

The agency record does provide us with benchmarks to give search engine marketing and advertising. The average click-through rate is about 2%. As an example of a successful campaign, Health Canada had a click-through rate of over 8% with their seasonal flu campaign.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Fantastic.

[Christiane Fox]

We can have a little bit more data. For Facebook advertising, which is the industry standard, we're at about 1%, and on the drone safety campaign, for example, we went up to a click-through rate of 2.73%. Therefore, we are able to have more metrics through digital that we can assess and evaluate to see where we had more success and where we did not.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Wonderful.

Clearly, since we're seeing so much traffic being driven from digital to the platform, really the platform is where our message is, so that really is the advertising. Does the policy apply to the Government of Canada websites?

[Louise Baird]

The policy applies to all Government of Canada communications, which of course includes the websites. A big part of our communication is driving people to the web to get their information.

I think we do need to make a distinction, though, between all other kinds of communications and advertising. Advertising is purchased, so it's paid purchase of space in a media outlet. That includes social media in some cases, but there is obviously use of social media that's not paid placement. I simply want to make that distinction there.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

It might not be paid, but it certainly has a cost to government. We're spending a lot of money, as a government, in providing IT infrastructure.

We've dropped the third party advertising spend to half, roughly, based on the presentations, from about $80 million per year to $40 million.

What do you expect the increase in the IT spend has been to accommodate our ability to engage digitally with the public, in terms of improving our media presence on our own websites, in terms of enabling employees to access digital infrastructure, opening these accounts, and the time they spend as employees managing social media? That's internal advertising spend, so do you guys have a grasp on how much our internal advertising spend has increased, while our external spend has been dropped to half?

Then I have one more question for the people in line.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

You have about one minute left to get all of those in.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

If you don't have the answers, maybe you guys can simply give some information to the committee in written form on what that spend has become.

I'd love to ask the folks from ASC about.... It looks like you have done some great review on about 16 media campaigns over the last year, representing about 1,800 or so images. Is that right?

[Janet Feasby, Vice-President, Standards, Advertising Standards Canada]

It's about 15 campaigns, and we've done 1,800-plus reviews.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Great.

Have you guys received any commentary or questions or been asked to review any of the campaigns under $500,000?

[Janet Feasby]

I don't know. You'd have to ask PSPC.

[Louise Baird]

Yes, there have been two campaigns that were voluntarily submitted for review through ASC that fell below the $500,000 threshold.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Okay, great.

How—

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Unfortunately, you've run out of time. I know you have many more questions, but we do have another round coming.

I'll turn it over to Mr. McCauley, for seven minutes, please.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Welcome, everyone. I'm going to bounce back and forth so I hope you'll bear with me.

We discussed quickly before about scientists speaking out, and I realize it was controversial, but you commented that they're not allowed to speak out as spokesmen for their departments, which I understand. How are they presenting themselves, then, if they are talking to the media? Is it just as a Canadian or are they allowed to say, “I work for the government in this department and this is my role, but I'm not speaking on behalf of this department”?

[Louise Baird]

They are speaking in an official capacity per their specific role. If we use a scientist, as an example, if they're focused on a specific area of research they can speak on behalf of the government.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

You said they're not allowed to speak out as spokespeople for their departments, so how are they presenting themselves, or how are we allowing them to present themselves when they are speaking?

[Louise Baird]

I guess I'll make the distinction of a general official spokesperson for a department as someone—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I don't need that. Just for the scientists, when we say that they're not allowed to speak as spokespeople for their department—the minister is, I understand that—how are they allowed to present themselves, then, to the media when they are presenting some of their opinions or information that's not officially on behalf of the ministry?

[Louise Baird]

It is officially on the department's behalf, but within their narrow field of expertise. It's not being a spokesperson for the whole department, but to be able to speak very knowledgeably about their specific area, obviously.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Are they allowed to speak out freely, then, on their—

[Louise Baird]

Yes.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay.

How are they presenting themselves?

[Louise Baird]

As their title, as that Government of Canada official—