Government Operations committee  Yes, that's exactly correct.

Government Operations committee  Frequently we're seeing advertisements as mere directions to websites, so there's the idea that if this is the case, then those websites ought to be reviewable.

Government Operations committee  I think that's a big hole in the changes that have been made. I think it really goes around what you mean by placement in media. I think Ms. Baird and others last time said that it's about government paying somebody else.

Government Operations committee  In Ontario, we grappled with this. We said that if they are paying or propose to pay, then it's advertising. It's advertising if a government gives money to a local theatre for sponsorship of the program. That's advertising because they're paying money to have the Government of C

Government Operations committee  As I said in my comments, I think the pre-2015 amendments in Ontario were really the paragon, if you will, of how it should be done on regulating government advertising. That did so because it banned partisanship, but it also mandated reasons for government advertising, and it ma

Government Operations committee  Yes. The reason I didn't mention any of that in my comments is that, post-Gomery, I think it's being done very well. Canada I think has become among the leaders in the world in making sure there's a coordination of the different units in the federal government that are dealing wi

Government Operations committee  Okay. I have a minute. I also want to respond quickly to the subliminal advertising thing. Very quickly, when the Conservatives were in power in Ontario in the 1970s, they ran this ad campaign, “Life is good, Ontario. Preserve it, conserve it.” That was a not-too-veiled referen

Government Operations committee  I think an Auditor General is really useful for doing an audit on value for money. If they were to do an audit on value for money on advertising, that would be useful. To answer Ms. Shanahan's previous question, I think it may not be the best organization to do an assessment of

Government Operations committee  The issue is not so much about the amount of money spent. In fact, one of the changes, which reduces it by $40 million as I understand it, is a good step in the direction of reducing government advertising. It's really around the propriety of advertising, in other words, ensuring

Government Operations committee  This is a question we wrestled with in the Nova Scotia committee that I was part of. One of the realities in modern communications, of course, is that it's not bound by electoral districts. To say you have to limit government advertising in the district and in the surrounding dis

Government Operations committee  Yes, absolutely. Government ads can be very useful if they provide a lot of information, or if they're telling citizens about services that are available to them. Too often, government advertising is used to placate citizens and make them feel good about being a Canadian, and in

Government Operations committee  What you've asked is really an interesting juxtaposition between where the changes have gone. Based on traditional media, $500,000 is a very reasonable amount. The observation you made, however, and the point I raised about digital media increasing enormously and being much cheap

Government Operations committee  The one thing I would see changed is an accountability of the external adviser to Parliament.

Government Operations committee  I'm very glad you asked that. The ASC is an excellent organization for monitoring and regulating commercial advertising, but if you look at the 14 criteria they monitor, many of them don't pertain to government advertising. Advertising about price discrimination, bait and switch

Government Operations committee  I would just like to answer the question you asked Professor Marland earlier about negative advertising. Interestingly enough, studies in the United States have shown there is more information found in negative advertising than in positive advertising. There are more lies in posi