Information & Ethics committee  No. I think they are very capable, but I think that given the volume, the increase in workload, the fact that decisions were coming down daily, the fact that the information that businesses were looking to access was changing on a consistent basis, and also that the minister's office and the ministry, to my knowledge, did not do the digital work we do....

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, and it wasn't unique to the minister's office; there were businesses in all categories that were looking to communicate both internally with their internal stakeholders as well as externally. We refer to that time as the “great pivot”. It was a time when businesses had to move from their normal operations and their normal communication operations in order to communicate everything, all of the supports that were available through their own channels, and in the case of the minister's office, we needed to get all those out.

Information & Ethics committee  I think it was absolutely critical.

Information & Ethics committee  I do. I think there were a number of supports available to small businesses. Information on the emergency wage subsidy eligibility requirements and how-to-apply rules, as well as information around loans, was changing. I think—

Information & Ethics committee  —it's very difficult to find that information buried on ministry web pages, and I think we used tools, digital tools, that were available to us, to get that information out expeditiously.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you for asking that question. No, it never occurred to me that the work I would be providing to this minister, which was similar in nature to work I had provided to other ministers, would be problematic simply because I knew her better.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  No, it was not an open-bid process.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't have that number in front of me.

Information & Ethics committee  I think it would be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $30,000.

Information & Ethics committee  What I can speak to is that the time we were engaged to do the work as a supplier was a time when Canadian businesses were frustrated because they couldn't access the information that they required in finding emergency supports like the wage subsidy, loans, eligibility and how-to-apply rules.

Information & Ethics committee  There were five members of our team, ranging from graphic designer to video editor to social and digital media specialist to media trainer.

Information & Ethics committee  It is remarkably good value per dollar, in my opinion. We produced 20 shareable graphics in English and French for business podcasts and Instagram Lives, which we also arranged, including six opportunities with the kit—the Bay Street Bull, Katie Zeppieri's “Together We Rise”, Amber Mac, “The Brand is Female”, and Women of Influence.

Information & Ethics committee  Never. I've also never done as much media training in a single year as I did over the course of the pandemic. In the minister's office alone, their needs had increased somewhere in the neighbourhood of sixfold. The volume of media requests that were coming in to the minister's office—but virtually to all businesses—to have a public presence was extraordinary.

Information & Ethics committee  I was.