Evidence of meeting #94 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was campaigns.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
But you just said it's not shared, and you just said it was shared.
Deputy Minister, Intergovernmental Affairs and Youth, Privy Council Office
I didn't say it wasn't shared.
Deputy Minister, Intergovernmental Affairs and Youth, Privy Council Office
We share the data on the click-through rates and the data on the advertising activity. As part of a campaign overview, we would share. If it's also requested by an access to information request, we would also share that. If we got a media call that asked us what the data was on that campaign, we would provide that data.
Deputy Minister, Intergovernmental Affairs and Youth, Privy Council Office
I don't think the results are published. ACETs, yes, a million-plus are published.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Do we do oversight on government websites as well to ensure non-partisanship? I realize it's not advertising, but we are paying for these websites.
Deputy Minister, Intergovernmental Affairs and Youth, Privy Council Office
Absolutely.
All Government of Canada activities, whether web presence, a news release, or a social media shareable, apply by non-partisan communications standards, so we would have oversight over all the activities to make sure they are respecting the communications policy of the Government of Canada.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
So...no excessive use of red, blue, or orange on websites.
Deputy Minister, Intergovernmental Affairs and Youth, Privy Council Office
On the government websites, all communication would have to adhere to the colour requirements for the communications policy.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Yes, that's what I was asking.
Ladies with Advertising Standards Canada, you may have mentioned this, and I'm sorry that I may have missed it. We are having a review of spending over $500,000 in campaigns. Have you done reviews on government spending in smaller campaigns?
Assistant Secretary, Strategic Communications and Ministerial Affairs, Treasury Board Secretariat
Sorry, I don't think you were aware of it earlier, but two campaigns were submitted for ASC review that fell below the $500,000 threshold.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Was it because they were just marginally below $500,000, or we thought maybe it was a marginal? Why did we submit?
Assistant Secretary, Strategic Communications and Ministerial Affairs, Treasury Board Secretariat
Any department voluntarily can submit if they want to go through that process.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Okay.
Ladies, is $500,000 the right level we should be looking at? Should we lower it or increase it?
Vice-President, Standards, Advertising Standards Canada
We wouldn't know. That's something you'd have to ask Treasury Board.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
I'm asking for your professional opinion. Should we be looking at all ads or all advertising campaigns for oversight?
Vice-President, Standards, Advertising Standards Canada
That's not something we can have an opinion on.
Vice-President, Standards, Advertising Standards Canada
We review the advertising they send us.
Conservative
Conservative
Assistant Secretary, Strategic Communications and Ministerial Affairs, Treasury Board Secretariat
As we were developing the process ,we did look at that threshold. Looking back over three years, about 90% of government ad campaigns were over the $500,000 on average. In the PSPC material a major campaign is defined as above $500,000, so that was why we chose that threshold.
