OTTAWA - The Conservative government is publicly promising to cut back on taxpayer-funded polling, while privately assuring Canada's public opinion research industry that it "definitely" has no plans to impose a moratorium.
The mixed messages come as the Harper government continues to sit on a long-awaited report on federal polling practices while racking up record spending on opinion research.
Last Tuesday, following reports the government spent a record $31 million in 2006-07, Public Works Minister Michael Fortier stated in the Senate that the government, "effective today, will ask all its departments to refrain from using public funds for polls until further notice."
Hours later, his spokesman Jacques Gagnon clarified that a moratorium was merely under consideration.
Within 24 hours, Gagnon had a different story for the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, or MRIA, which represents Canada's polling industry.
In an advisory to its corporate membership obtained by The Canadian Press, the association reported it had been in contact with Gagnon as well as Laurent Marcoux, the director general of the government's Public Opinion Research Directorate.
Gagnon told the MRIA's government lobbyist on Wednesday that the Tories "had no intention of proceeding with a moratorium on public opinion research," said the advisory from Brendan Wycks, association executive director.
And on Thursday, Wycks himself was informed by Marcoux that "Prime Minister Harper and Minister Fortier had decided the government definitely would not be placing a moratorium on public opinion research."
Michel Guimond of the Bloc Quebecois, when told of the advisory, said the "Tories are just full of themselves."
"Instead of answering our specific questions in the House, the minister would rather go behind our backs to the association and tell them, 'Don't you worry, the tap will remain open, and all will be as usual.' "
Asked to clarify matters, Harper's spokeswoman directed inquries to Fortier, who declined to be interviewed. His spokesman also would not speak to The Canadian Press by phone.
Instead, Gagnon e-mailed what he called "lines" in response to questions:
-(at)"We are going to reduce polling and focus group testing as quickly as possible."
-(at)"There will be no moratorium on polling for now."
The e-mail also blamed civil servants.
-(at)"We have learned that bureaucrats are spending too much money and doing too much polling."
Yet the 2006-07 figures show that the Privy Council Office, which directly answers to the Prime Minister's Office, was the fourth biggest spending department and that its $1.3 million tab represented a four-fold increase over the last full year of Liberal government in 2004-05.
"What's there to be surprised about?" said NDP MP Charlie Angus in an interview. "It's the prime minister who's driving the polling.
"It seems that their message box is a little shaky right now."
Wycks, in an interview, confirmed that the market research association had been reassured but he didn't want to "speculate on the question of mixed messages coming from the government.
"What we shared with our corporate members was the best information we had at the time."
Wycks said he was not informed of any decision to scale back government polling.
"We've been kept waiting like everyone else for the release of the report."
The study by Daniel Paille was delivered to the government in both official languages more than two months ago.
Wycks said he's been told it includes 22 recommendations. He's concerned the government is going to release both the report and announce changes in polling practices as "a fait accompli" on the same day sometime this week.
The association has written a letter to Fortier proposing a system for scrutinizing public opinion research plans before the surveys go ahead.
"Only projects that are of lesser value would be denied," said Wycks, rather than placing an arbitrary cap on spending or imposing a moratorium.
During the 2006 election campaign that brought the Conservatives to power, Harper promised a wide-ranging review of federal spending on polls.
In one of his most arresting visual props of the campaign, Harper displayed $132,000 in cash in Quebec City to illustrate the cost of one report done under the Liberals for the Department of Indian Affairs.
That report, Harper noted, was oral, leaving no written document. "That is not value for money and it has to stop."
To the government's credit, the Conservatives have been regularly posting public opinion research online - although some studies, such as a $117,000 report commissioned by the Privy Council Office on ethnic outreach and discovered only through an Access to Information request, appear to have fallen through the cracks.
But the sheer volume of polling and focus group testing is an embarrassment for a prime minister who once claimed to be above opinion pandering.
"This party will not take its position based on public opinion polls," Harper told the Commons on Jan. 29, 2003, while arguing that Canada should back any allied invasion of Iraq.
"We will not take a stand based on focus groups. We will not take a stand based on phone-in shows or householder surveys or any other vagaries of pubic opinion."
Wycks said public opinion research is a valuable democratic tool and its growing use should not be perceived as a bad thing.
"It helps government understand Canadian society and identify citizens' needs and expectations when developing its policies, programs and services," he said.
"In our view, there's no better way for governments to empower Canadians to make their opinions count."
