Government Operations committee  There are some differences, for sure.

Government Operations committee  It would have to be on a specific subject, but there are definite differences. Some are more centralized than others. I can give you an example. In Britain everything goes through one office. One office does absolutely everything from A to Z for the entire government. That's very

Government Operations committee  There are--and it is kind of technical--different ways to purchase Internet. They have different cost structures, and they do different things. You can buy in a particular website, and that's easy, right? You buy in a website, and you know where you're placing your ad. The way th

Government Operations committee  That's a role we play at different stages in the process. When an ad first comes in to us, or when we work with a government department, typically it's at the very beginning of the process. When they give us a call and tell us, “We're going to mount an ad campaign”, the first t

Government Operations committee  There are different things at different steps. Before a campaign is completed, there is pre-testing done on several concepts. When you hire an ad agency, typically they'll present a minimum of three concepts. Those concepts are tested in the target population to ensure that the m

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  The overall process, the actual framework, remains the same. But as new things come up.... For instance, we heard earlier about issues around the Internet. I mean, there's new media coming up all the time, so we take care to review all of these things, to make sure our processes

Government Operations committee  No.

Government Operations committee  We have only been working with Cossette since 2004.

Government Operations committee  Cossette Communication was not working for the government at that time.

Government Operations committee  Cossette has been around for some time. It secured its first contract as an agency of record with the Government of Canada in 2004. It secured its second contract last year, following a competitive process.

Government Operations committee  The contract provides for two reviews. Cossette Communications provides services to my group, so it provides corporate services and does all the media buying. At the 18-month mark—that's coming at the beginning of next fiscal year—we will hire a third-party media expert to review

Government Operations committee  First of all, all the contracting for advertising services goes through one group, and that's Public Works and Government Services Canada. Right there it enables one group to ensure they are following all the principles of open, fair, and transparent government. Every contract f

Government Operations committee  Sorry.

Government Operations committee  Canada Post is not within our jurisdiction, unfortunately.