Government Operations Committee on June 15th, 2017

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you.

[Marc Saint-Pierre]

If I may, when departments come to meet, there are two questions you have to ask yourself. Do you control 100% of the message? If the answer is yes, you move on to the second question. Do you pay a third party or compensate a third party outside of the government to have that message broadcast or put on the air? If the answer is yes, that's advertising.

I'm going to give you a simple example. There's a huge billboard by Health Canada about quitting smoking. That huge billboard is placed at Place du Portage, just when you come up the Portage Bridge. That building is a Public Works building. That's not advertising, because they're not paying a third party to have it shown. For the same billboard placed on Highway 640 in Laval, you pay somebody for the same billboard, the same size, and the same colours—that's advertising.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you. I think that example helps to clarify things. We appreciate that.

Any government advertising is subject to standards beyond the non-partisanship that we're discussing today. As the advertising standards council, you guys would potentially review government advertising, not based on its non-partisanship, but on other analysis and criteria that need to be met based on your code. Is that correct?

[Janet Feasby]

No. We simply review the advertising—

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

I mean, if there was a complaint about advertising.

[Janet Feasby]

If there was a complaint, yes.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Right. What you guys do is far beyond just the paid advertising component, obviously.

[Janet Feasby]

Yes. We administer the Canadian code.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Have there been recent complaints about government advertising to your council?

[Janet Feasby]

Not that I'm aware of.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Okay. Thank you for that.

I want to talk about the directive itself. The directive has four objectives. I would like to have an interpretation of what you think this part of the objectives of the directive means: “Government of Canada communications and the administration of its corporate identity are cost-effective and achieve savings through standardization.”

How is that manifesting itself in the operations of your department?

[Louise Baird]

There are standard uses of word mark or identifiers for the Government of Canada and departments. Because they are all the same, there are guidelines on how to use them the same way. It effectively reduces that cost and makes sure it's consistent. More importantly, it makes it consistent so people recognize it's the Government of Canada.

[Marc Saint-Pierre]

An example for saving, and I mentioned it in my speech, is that all the buying is done by one private company under contract with PSPC. When that company goes to CTV for a media buy, it is not only speaking for Health Canada or one department. It puts all the buys together and even buys of other customers it has. It asks CTV—we usually buy $6 million or $7 million—what the best price is that it can give us. Of course we're obtaining a better price than if it's done one by one, by each department.

That company is audited over the course of the contract to make sure we're obtaining the best price for every buy we're doing. Until recently, we were buying $80 million and there was about $60 million that was for media buys. That's a better tool than if one department goes alone.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Could those cost savings not be achieved without this directive? That just seems to me to be good business sense.

[Marc Saint-Pierre]

If every department was to do their own buy, it would pay the regular price. We would possibly have five departments with advertising in the same week on the same channel and the same this and the same that. If we compare ourselves with other governments, this is the best way to obtain the best value for the dollars we're spending.

[Christiane Fox]

It could be done outside the directive if people kind of...good business sense, as you noted. With the large scale of government operations and its regional presence, HQ putting it in the directive makes it very clear to people, new players, old players, as they come into a position, that this is the directive they follow. It allows the system to work as it should.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

I appreciate that. I think it's an important part of the directive.

I think it was you, Ms. Baird, who mentioned the ban on advertising in the 90 days prior to the fixed date election.

Is there any contemplation about a writ being longer than 90 days? Would the ban kick in at the earlier of the writ or that 90-day period? Theoretically, the writ could be 120 days or 150 days.

[Louise Baird]

As it was in the previous policy and continues to be, once the writ is dropped, there's a ban on advertising. In addition to that, I guess it depends when the writ is dropped and when the election date is set. It's to also ensure that when there's a fixed election date, we include that and have that 90-day period as well.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Right.

[Louise Baird]

Either way, it gets captured.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

My reading of it is that it's the earlier of whatever day. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that was clear, because obviously that was the intent of that.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

We'll now go to five-minute rounds. We'll start with Mr. Clarke.

You have five minutes.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Hello and thank you to our witnesses for being here with us this morning. Your presence is very much appreciated.

I do not know who can answer this question, so it is open to everyone.

How much does Canada spend on advertising in other countries?

[Marc Saint-Pierre]

Are you referring to advertising that we purchase from foreign media?

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Yes.