Cleaning up government polling and advertising

On April 11, 2006, the Government of Canada introduced the Federal Accountability Act and Action Plan, delivering on its commitment to make government more accountable. This is one of a series of fact sheets describing proposed actions to respond to this commitment.

The context

Recent political scandals have raised legitimate questions about the transparency, fairness, and value for money of the procurement process for public opinion research and advertising. In her November 2003 report, the Auditor General raised concerns about lack of compliance with contracting rules; the manner in which public opinion research and advertising contracts were awarded; poor documentation; and the failure of oversight mechanisms to detect, prevent, and report violations.

The Action Plan

To reinforce Canadians' confidence in the procurement process for public opinion research and advertising, the Federal Accountability Act will:

• prohibit verbal-only reports; and
• require departments and agencies to send a final written report on research findings obtained under contract to Library and Archives Canada within six months of completing data collection.

The Government will also amend its communications policy and related procedures by June 2006 to reflect the new statutory requirement for written reports, to include a requirement that contracting be open, fair, and transparent, and to add a new definition of advertising to distinguish it from collateral services such as public relations or events management.

In addition, the Government will:

• appoint an Independent Advisor for a period of six months to conduct a full review of public opinion research practices discussed in Chapter 5 of the Auditor General's November 2003 report and determine whether further action, such as a judicial inquiry, is required; and
• require departments and agencies to post contract information on public opinion research and executive summaries of completed projects on the Internet for ease of public access.

For more information

For more information on this specific measure, please refer to the relevant section of the Action Plan, or contact us.