MRIA raps Ottawa over ‘arbitrary' cuts to research spend
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CANADA-- The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA) has warned the Government of Canada it risks derailing its policy-making and programme delivery capabilities if it presses on with plans to cut public opinion research (POR) spend by nearly a third.
The Conservatives in Ottawa want to trim C$10m from the government's POR bill in the 08/09 financial year after being stung by criticism of the C$31m spent in 06/07 – a figure unequalled by any previous government.
MRIA said: “The real issue is not one of ensuring that this government spends less on public opinion research than previous governments did, but rather of ensuring that Canadians receive the best value and best output from government programmes and policies.”
The association said public opinion research had become “fundamental” in giving citizens a say in policy decisions and in measuring the effectiveness of existing programmes. It warned that “an arbitrary cost-cutting target… could easily damage” policy-making and programme delivery capabilities.
Brendan Wycks, executive director of the MRIA, told Research there appeared to be little hope of getting the government to rethink its decision. In a brief meeting with representatives of the Public Opinion Research Directorate on Friday, the MRIA was told ministers “had made up their minds on this”.
However there is the possibility of a snap election being called if the government is defeated in a budget vote next week. Any election could delay the introduction of the new POR expenditure controls, or see them scrapped entirely were the Conservatives to lose.
Among the measures announced last week was a new requirement for ministerial sign-off on all departmental public opinion research projects. This has perhaps generated the most controversy, with experts warning it could open the government to charges of political interference in the awarding of polling contracts – as a similar rule did more than a decade ago, before it was scrapped by Jean Chrétien's Liberal government.
Nik Nanos, past-president of the MRIA and owner of Nanos Research, told the Ottawa Citizen last week: “If there's a feeling that these contracts are vetted or reviewed at a political level, it might cast a little bit of a different light on how people perceive things are done, regardless if they're done properly or not.”
Author: Brian Tarran
Related links:
Ottawa to cut C$10m from opinion research spend in 08/09
