AWARENESS OF SERVICE CANADA

This section reports on levels of awareness of Service Canada.

Limited Awareness of Service Canada

Fewer than half the respondents (45%) think that, to the best of their knowledge, there is a department of the Government of Canada that has primary responsibility for providing services to Canadians. An additional 15% think it is likely that there is such a department, but were not sure about this. Among the rest, just over one in five (22%) believe there is no such department, while 17% did not know or did not provide a response.

Relatively few of those who think there is a federal government department with primary responsibility for providing services to Canadians were able to identify it by name. More than half (55%) did not identify any organization, while only 8% correctly identified Service Canada. That said, many did identify departments that had previously provided many of the programs/services now delivered by Service Canada, including HRDC/ HRSDC (13%), Social Development Canada (2%), and 1-800 O’Canada (2%). As well, a few referred more generally to social assistance (4%) and pension-related matters (3%).

Also identified were Health Canada (5%) and the Canada Revenue Agency (2%). Included in the ‘other’ category are Citizenship and Immigration, the Department of Justice, and Veterans Affairs.

 D

Q1: To the best of your knowledge, is there a department of the Government of Canada that has primary responsibility for providing services to Canadians?

Q2: What is the name of that department?

Everyone who did not identify Service Canada by name was asked the following question: Service Canada, created in September, 2005, has primary responsibility for providing services to Canadians on behalf of the Government of Canada. Have you heard of this organization?

In response, almost three- quarters (72%) said they were  not aware of the department. Among those who claimed to be aware of Service Canada, 16% said they were definitely aware of it, while 11% were vaguely aware of it.

D

In total, therefore, 30% of all surveyed clients claimed to be aware of Service Canada. However, awareness was much more likbe the of prompting (26%), than unaided recognition (4%).

In addition, awareness is higher among Service Canada clients compared to the Canadian population as a whole (although unprompted awareness is essentially the same).

This sentence was read to all respondents, including those who were able to identify Service Canada, so that all respondents shared this same information going forward in the survey.

D

Q2: What is the name of that department?

Q3: Service Canada, created in September, 2005, has primary responsibility for providing services to Canadians on behalf of the Government of Canada. Have you heard of this organization?

Government, Media – Main Sources of Awareness of Service Canada

Government, in general, was the information source cited most often in term of learning or hearing about Service Canada. Exactly half identified governmental sources, including referral by another department, agency or specific program (15%), a federal government website (12%), a government mailing (9%), a federal government office or Service Canada Centre (6%), 1-800 O’ Canada (4%), and the Service Canada website (4%). The media or news reports were also identified frequently, with nearly one-quarter (23%) of those aware of the department saying they first learned about it through the media/news. Other sources that were identified included friends and family (8%), work (3%), or the phone book (3%).

Approximately one in ten (11%) could not recall how they first learned about Service Canada.

D

Q4: How did you first hear or learn about Service Canada?

[  previous  |  table of contents |  next  ]