On 15 June 2017, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates (the Committee) undertook a study of the federal communications policy with respect to government advertising. In the course of its study, the Committee held 3 meetings, heard from 14 witnesses and received 2 briefs.

This report reviews the changes made in 2016 to the federal government’s policy on communications and procedures for advertising and explores the best ways to ensure that government communications and advertising effectively reach Canadians. It outlines changes designed to avoid partisanship in government communications and advertising and suggests improvements. It also offers ways to provide proper and relevant oversight of government advertising activities and to increase government transparency with regard to communications and advertising. Ten recommendations address important challenges related to government communications and advertising.

In the opinion of the Committee, the main challenges of the federal communications policy as it applies to government advertising are the following:

• Communications evolve in a continuously changing environment.
• The limited information and data available to evaluate the impact of government communications and advertising hinders the ability of the federal government to assess whether it is effectively reaching Canadians.
• Rules surrounding non-partisan communications must be very clear so that public resources are not used to promote political agendas.
• A permanent third-party oversight body for federal government advertising activities does not exist.
• Some Canadians do not have access to social media platforms or are not active on them and so they do not consult Government of Canada digital advertising campaigns and activities.

The Committee’s recommendations seek to address these challenges by proposing the following:

• The government policy and directive on government communications and advertising should be updated regularly.
• The government should ensure that all advertising campaigns, whether they involve traditional media or digital media, establish performance indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising activities.
• The rules on non-partisan communications contained in the Government of Canada Policy on Communications and Federal Identity should be tested and reviewed regularly and updated as required.
• The federal government should explore various avenues to provide appropriate oversight of government communications and advertising.
• Information on government digital advertising campaigns and activities, including those on social media platforms, should be made available in a way that is accessible to all Canadians.