Interesting to see the reaction to a news story on Friday from CBC about the costs of advertising done by the province for the new deal. Some of the tab was picked up by the federal government.
In the interests of full disclosure, it must be noted that I used to work for a subsidiary of M5.
But here's my take on it, anyway, for what it's worth.
The work done by M5 is of the high calibre anyone would expect from one of the major advertising companies in the province and one that holds major accounts in Atlantic Canada. The overall price doesn't seem outrageous or even questionable in light of what was done. It seems to be pretty fair.
By contrast, I could discuss at some length the outrageous charges for some work done for the Hydro project under the Tobin administration or at least billed against the communications account - note I did not include not the stuff done for Grimes.
Was it necessary to do the advertising? Probably not and certainly not in the warm fuzzy approach taken but that is really a matter of choice. If it is what the client asked for and it doesn't cause them any difficulties, why fight about it? I've had clients hell bent on disregarding best advice and those are things consultants have to deal with. Some people over at Fair Deal didn't like it. Ok. That's fair enough.
As for how the work was awarded, there are some constraining factors such as timing that need to be considered. The process of getting quotes might well have taken too long; some companies may not have been able to pick the job up quickly and finish it on time. The real test of the procurement process will be for things like the "branding" project.
I can tell you from experience that government and other agencies and companies often go through all sorts of internal wrangling to ensure big contracts are awarded fairly. Sometimes the suspected preferred bidder gets the work; sometimes it doesn't. But I emphasize the word "suspected" - word on the street isn't always accurate; it is sometimes sheer speculation.
In a properly run competition, there are so many factors to be weighed and government does need some flexibility to ensure that it doesn't fall victim to the low-cost, low-quality trap that sometimes results from a misapplication of the public tendering process. We all know the joke about soldiers commenting that their rifles and helmets were made by the lowest bidder - implicitly suggesting they are therefore of the lowest quality. Well, the same is true for services like marketing, advertising and public relations. Cheapest isn't always best.
So the ads are done, the TV spots have been aired and hopefully the cheque will be cut and the account closed.
Roger Grimes has noted the difference between Danny Williams, Opposition Leader and Danny Williams, Premier when it comes to tendering contracts. It's a fair comment, but again, it wouldn't be the first time attitudes changed in moving from one side of the House to the other for nothing more than a sudden appreciation of the complexity and difficulty of doing things on the inside that appear obvious and simple only from the outside.
Comparisons with the federal sponsorship business are equally overblown. Then again, the whole Gomery inquiry has drawn way too much attention to a raft of relatively minor purchases in the greater scheme of government procurement. It's $100 million against a federal budget of umpteen billion. If the law was broken, the RCMP investigation can sort that out. If administrative procedures were bent or broken, then the internal administrative system of the federal public service should be able to sort that out. Let's move on past the golf balls and neckties. Let's hope that Gomery inquiry doesn't wind up hamstringing the federal government or make it shy to inform Canadians accurately about what it does on their behalf.
There are a bunch of other things to get more excited about in the province and in the country than this particular contract.