Questions and responses 41st Parliament, 1st session June 2, 2011, to September 13, 2013

With regard to government advertising: (a) which departments or agencies were engaged in any television advertisement by a department or agency of the government during the television broadcast of any Super Bowl game from Super Bowl XL (2006) through Super Bowl XLVI (2012) inclusively; (b) what were the stated objectives and purpose of each advertisement; (c) when did each advertisement run; (d) what was the cost of each advertisement; (e) which private companies were involved in the conception, design, and production of the ads; (f) were any advertising contracts sole-sourced and, if so, which ones and why; (g) what was the target audience of each campaign; (h) in which television markets did they appear; (i) what analysis was or will be done on the effectiveness of any such advertisement; (j) who undertook or will undertake that analysis, and at what cost; and (k) which of these advertisements failed to meet the stated objectives of the campaign, and why?

With respect to advertising paid for by the government, broken down by fiscal year, for each fiscal year from fiscal year beginning April 1, 2006, up to and including the first half of fiscal year 2012: (a) how much was spent for each type of advertising, including, but not limited to (i) television, specifying the stations, (ii) radio, specifying the stations, (iii) print, i.e. newspapers and magazines, specifying the names of the publications, (iv) the internet, specifying the names of the websites, (v) billboards, specifying the total amount of billboards and the locations of the billboards, broken down by electoral district, (vi) bus shelters, specifying the locations, (vii) advertising in all other publically-accessible places; (b) for each individual purchase of advertising, who signed the contracts; (c) for every ad, who was involved in producing it; and (d) for every ad, what were the production costs, both direct and indirect, broken down per advertisement?

With respect to advertising paid for by the government, broken down by fiscal year for each fiscal year from fiscal year beginning April 1, 2006 up to and including the first half of fiscal year 2012: (a) how much did the government spend on advertising; (b) what was the subject of each advertisement, (i) how much was spent on each subject; (c) which departments purchased advertising, (i) what are the details of the spending by each department in this regard; (d) for each subject and department in (b) and (c), how much was spent for each type of advertising, including, but not limited to (i) television, specifying the stations ,(ii) radio, specifying the stations, (iii) print, i.e. newspapers and magazines, specifying the names of the publications, (iv) the internet, specifying the names of the websites, (v) billboards, specifying the locations of the billboards, (vi) bus shelters, specifying the locations, (vii) advertising in all other publically accessible places; (e) for each type of advertisement in (d), was it in Canada or off shore; (f) for each, subject in (b), department in (c) and type of advertising in (d), what is the time period where the advertising ran; (g) for each individual purchase of advertising, who signed the contracts; (h) for every ad, who was involved in producing it; (i) for every ad, was a third party involved in running it or was a third party co-ordinating other ads based on those of the government; and (j) for every ad, were the purchase and running of the ad timed for any specific event, such as sporting event?

With regard to government advertising, since 2005-2006, broken down by fiscal year and by department: (a) how much was spent in total; (b) how much was spent on (i) print advertising, (ii) radio advertising, (iii) television advertising, (iv) internet advertising, (v) indoor sign advertising, (vi) outdoor sign advertising; (c) how much was spent on domestic advertising; (d) how much was spent on advertising abroad, and in which countries; (e) how much was spent on the development of advertising content; (f) how much was paid to private firms for the development of advertising content; and (g) which private advertising firms received government contracts, and for what amount?

With regard to government advertising: (a) what is the overall budget for the print advertising campaign which has appeared in newspapers or other print media outlets concerning Old Age Security, under the heading “Placing Old Age Security on a Sustainable Path”; (b) who did the creative work on these ads; (c) if the answer to (b) is an outside party or agency, who was the outside party or agency; (d) what was the cost of the creative work; (e) what media outlets did the ad appear in, and, for each, on which date or dates was the ad inserted; (f) what was the cost of each individual insertion; (g) who determined the colour scheme for the ads; and (h) what was the rationale for the colour scheme?

With regard to advertising by the government during the broadcast of Super Bowl XLVII on February 3, 2013: (a) what was the total cost for advertising; and (b) what was the cost for each advertisement shown?

With regard to government advertising: since 2006, how much has been spent on billboards, advertising and other information campaigns, broken down by (i) date released, (ii) cost, (iii) topic, (iv) medium, including publication or media outlet and type of media used, (v) purpose, (vi) duration of the campaign, (vii) targeted audience, (viii) estimated audience, (ix) any analysis of the effectiveness of the advertisement or campaign?

With regard to government communications: (a) what was the cost of (i) producing, (ii) printing, (iii) distributing an insert concerning Old Age Security (OAS) policies, distributed with OAS cheques or stubs in the spring of 2012; (b) what was the purpose of the insert; and (c) was the distribution complete to all OAS recipients, and, if not, what was the geographical or other distribution, and how was that distribution determined?

With respect to the television advertisements “Our Veterans Matter”, “The Pride of Our Country”, “Veterans’ Week Vignette”, and other 2011 Veterans’ Week television spots: (a) how many different advertisements were produced or used to promote Veterans’ Week in 2011; (b) what was the total cost (production, airtime, etc.) for the advertisements in (a); (c) what was the cost to produce the television spots, broken down individually by advertisement; (d) what company or companies produced the advertisements, broken down individually by advertisement; (e) what was the cost of television airtime for the advertisements, broken down individually by advertisement; (f) on which television channels were the advertisements aired; (g) what was the cost of online airtime for the advertisements, broken down individually by advertisement; (h) on which online platforms were the advertisements aired, broken down by free media (e.g., posting to YouTube) and fee media (e.g., online commercials); and (i) which programs or divisions of Veterans Affairs Canada were responsible for (i) overseeing/coordinating production of the advertisements, (ii) financing the production of the advertisements, (iii) financing the purchase of airtime both on television and online?

With regard to government communications: (a) for each press release which contains the phrase “Harper government” issued by each government department, agency, office, Crown corporation, or other government body since May 1, 2012, what is the (i) headline or subject line, (ii) date, (iii) file or code number, (iv) subject matter; (b) for each such press release, was it distributed (i) on the web site of the issuing department, agency, office, Crown corporation, or other government body, (ii) on Marketwire, (iii) on Canada Newswire, (iv) on any other commercial wire or distribution service, specifying which service; and (c) for each press release distributed by a commercial wire or distribution service mentioned in (b)(ii) through (b)(iv), what was the cost of using that service?

With regard to government communications: (a) for each press release containing the phrase “Harper government” issued by any government department, agency, office, Crown corporation, or other government body, since September 21, 2012, what is the (i) headline or subject line, (ii) date, (iii) file or code-number, (iv) subject-matter; (b) for each such press release, was it distributed (i) on the web site of the issuing department, agency, office, Crown corporation, or other government body, (ii) on Marketwire, (iii) on Canada Newswire, (iv) on any other commercial wire or distribution service, specifying which service; and (c) for each press release distributed by a commercial wire or distribution service mentioned in (b)(ii) through (b)(iv), what was the cost of using that service?

With regard to the backdrops used by the government for the announcements from February 2, 2011, to present, for each backdrop purchased, what was: (a) the date (i) the tender was issued for the backdrop, (ii) the contract was signed, (iii) the backdrop was delivered; (b) the cost of the backdrop; (c) the announcement for which the backdrop was used; (d) the department that paid for the backdrop; and (e) the date or dates the backdrop was used?

With respect to advertising for the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for the years 2003-2013 inclusive: (a) what was the advertising budget, broken down by year; (b) how many different advertising campaigns were created or used, broken down by year; (c) how many different advertisements were produced or used, broken down by year; (d) what was the total cost (design, production, airtime, printing, etc.) for the advertising campaigns in (b); (e) what was the total cost (production, airtime, printing, etc.) for the advertisements in (c); (f) what was the cost to produce the television, radio, print, or online spots, broken down individually by advertisement; (g) what companies produced the advertisements, broken down individually by advertisement; (h) what was the cost of television airtime for the advertisements, broken down individually by advertisement; (i) what television channels were the advertisements aired on; (j) what was the cost of online airtime for the advertisements, broken down individually by advertisement; (k) what online platforms were the advertisements aired on, broken down by free media (i.e. posting to YouTube) and fee media (i.e. online commercials); (l) what was the cost of ad space in newspapers and other print publications, broken down individually by advertisement; and (m) what programs or divisions of CRA were responsible for (i) overseeing/coordinating production of the advertisements, (ii) financing the production of the advertisements, (iii) financing the purchase of airtime both on television and online, and print space in newspapers and other print publications?

With regard to advertising by the government during the broadcast of the Academy Awards on February 24, 2013: (a) what was the total cost for advertising; and (b) what was the cost for each advertisement shown?

With respect to government advertising: (a) what has been the overall budget for advertising, broken down by department, agency, or crown corporation, including references to the bicentennial of the War of 1812, (i) in print, (ii) on radio, (iii) on television, (iv) on the internet, (v) other medium; and (b) what are the (i) date, (ii) medium, (iii) cost, (iv) subject matter of each individual advertisement?

With regard to the attendance at public events of ten government Ministers on June 4, 2012, as listed in the Media Advisory from the Department of Natural Resources entitled “Harper Government Ministers Participate in Events from Coast to Coast to Highlight the Importance of Responsible Resource Development to Canadians” and dated June 3, 2012: (a) for each Minister’s travel, what was the (i) itinerary of their flight, including the departure city and destination, (ii) number of people travelling with each Minister and their title or position, (iii) travel itinerary for each person travelling with each Minister including their departure city and destination, (iv) cost for each flight for each of the Ministers and all persons travelling with each Minister, (v) costs for all ground transportation, per diems, and accommodations for each Minister and for each person travelling with each Minister, (vi) calculated greenhouse gas emissions for all flights and ground transportation; (b) what related press releases were sent to any media outlets from any department, agency or crown corporation; (c) what are the costs associated with consultants (i.e. non-governmental employees) that provided any service before, during or after the listed events of June 4, 2012, and what are the costs of any associated public opinion polling; (d) for each announcement or speech, what was the (i) cost for room rental, audio-visual equipment, room setup, and related personnel, (ii) announcement/speech, (iii) number of people in attendance, (iv) number of media in attendance, (v) number of local “media hits”, (vi) the number of national “media hits”; (e) what was the total cost to taxpayers for each event; and (f) what was the total estimated green house gas emissions for each event?

With regard to the Export Development Corporation, Business Development Bank of Canada, Farm Credit Canada, and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Agency, since January 7, 2007, how much has been spent on: (a) radio advertising; (b) television advertising; (c) cinema advertising; (d) internet advertising; (e) advertising in print daily newspaper; (f) advertising in print magazines; (g) advertising in print weeklies or community papers; (h) public opinion research; and (i) advertising design and production?

With regard to spending by the government, the Prime Minister’s Office, and the Privy Council Office on promotional items for each year since 2007: (a) by vendor name, how much was spent on (i) hockey pucks, (ii) golf balls, (iii) sports jerseys, (iv) plastic wrist bands; (b) what was the total amount spent by each department and office; (c) what are the dates of each contract awarded; and (d) were these contracts open competitions?

With regard to the government's planned advertising campaign for the budget tabled on March 29, 2012: (a) what is the total estimated cost of planned advertising for the budget; and (b) what is the estimated cost of planned advertising broken down by the mediums of (i) television, (ii) radio, (iii) movie theatres, (iv) online video game environments, (v) internet ads, (vi) trade publications, (vii) billboards or other signage, (viii) print?

With regard to television advertising (commercials) which promotes Canada’s Economic Action Plan: (a) how many television advertisements have been (i) created in total, broken down by year, (ii) given an identification number or name or a Media Authorization Number (ADV number); (b) what is the identification number or name or ADV number for each advertisement listed in (a)(ii); and (c) for the answers to each part of (a), (i) what is the length (minutes and seconds) of each advertisement, (ii) what is the cost for the production or creation of each advertisement, (iii) what companies were used to produce or create each advertisement, (iv) what is the number of times each advertisement has aired, specifying total number of times and total length of time (minutes and seconds), broken down by year and by month for each advertisement, (v) what was the total cost to air or publish each advertisement, broken down by year and by month, (vi) what criteria were used to select each of the advertisement placements, (vii) what media outlets were used to air or publish each advertisement, broken down by year and by month, (viii) what was the total amount spent per outlet, broken down by year and by month?