As in previous years, the Department of Finance enlisted private-sector expertise to assist in the preparation of the 1999 federal budget and, more particularly, the government's efforts to communicate to Canadians the budget's contents and its possible impacts.
Moreover and again as in previous years, strict measures were put in place to ensure that those whom the department contracted were unable to use their pre-release knowledge of the 1999 budget's contents to realize commercial and/or individuals gains. Specifically, those contracted with knowledge of the budget's contents prior to its release are legally bound to adhere to the provisions of the Official Secrets Act.
Those contracted to assist the government with the prepqaration and communication of the 1999 budget and the xpenses incurred for said assistance were: Principium Inc., $44,000 for speech writing services performed for the months of December 1998 through February 1999; Earnsciffe Strategy Group, $60,000 for strategic services and advice provided from November 1998 through February 1999; HyperActive, $11,541.61 for on site technical support in February 1999 for the creation of interactive Internet presentations; and Magma, $17,575 for provision in February 1999 of an outside of government server used to broadcast the live budget speech over the Internet in real time. Magma did not have access to any budget inormation previous to its release.