Overview

Secretariat's Roles and Responsibilities

Communications and Consultation is one of three secretariats in the Plans and Consultation branch. This secretariat provides advice and support on communications issues and is responsible for coordinating government-wide communications and consultations. The following describes, in alphabetical order, some of those key activities.

Senior PCO and PMO officials frequently seek the views of the Assistant Secretary on a wide range of issues. The Assistant Secretary may also be called upon to provide advice on senior personnel matters, management of the Public Service, security and intelligence and other matters.

• PCO is the lead central agency responsible for public consultation and citizen engagement. Its major clients are senior PCO management, PMO and all federal departments and agencies. Its primary role is to instill and support a corporate consultation culture across government and to ensure the effective integration of public consultation and citizen engagement into government policy and decision-making.

• The Secretariat supports PCO's consultation role through four key functions: policy/strategic development; horizontal coordination; advice and support to PCO secretariats, other departments and agencies; and close collaboration with external organizations working in this field.

• In crisis situations, the Secretariat often becomes the key coordination point, setting up crisis management structures that include:

• real time media monitoring ;
• approved Questions and Answers ;
• designated spokespersons ;
• rolling update on the situation and the federal response;
• morning conference call of key officials;
• trouble-shooting/path-finding as the situation evolved; and
• secondment of staff to the lead department or agency to assist their analysis and production efforts.

• The policy secretariats depend on this structure in order to obtain information during an evolving situation and to coordinate many departmental interventions that are not directly related to the emergency. A similar structure is often used to manage lesser forms of crisis or significant issues.

• As the senior member in government of the federal communications community, the Assistant Secretary to Cabinet (Communications and Consultation) works in partnership with the ADMs of Communication and the Directors General of Communication, to strengthen organizational capacity and enhance professional skills and competencies within the community.

• A Communications Community Office (CCO) has been established by the heads of communication, to improve networking, training and professional development, and recruitment practices. PCO is a member of the CCO Steering Committee. The CCO is self-funded by the heads of communications.

• The committee, chaired by PCO, meets weekly or as needed to review all major advertising campaigns being developed by departments and agencies, with a view to improving coordination and consistency.

• Interdepartmental coordination is a key element of the Secretariat's work and involves close cooperation with PCO's policy secretariats and other central agencies that have strong communications or consultations functions. This accounts for the majority of the secretariat's interactions with PMO, ministers' offices, senior officials of departments and communications branches. This is the way in which much of the day-to-day communications operations of the government is conducted.

• This coordination often involves the activities of more than one department and can occur on various types of files:

• operational: items such as the AG Report or media lines on a media story;
• new government business: coordinating a launch or announcement;
• irritants/hot files: managing responses/directing traffic on emerging issues;
• federal-provincial: PCO Intergovernmental Affairs (IGA) is generally the communication lead when all provinces are involved, such as the Social Union Framework or a First Ministers' Meeting;
• international: visits (both in Canada and abroad) and trade disputes (such as softwood lumber) that involve working directly with Canada's posts abroad;
• horizontal files: involves bringing together government activity on a priority such as youth or children;
• advertising coordination: to ensure a strong Government of Canada identity and that individual campaigns are coherent, consistent and better coordinated;
• public opinion research: to facilitate sharing of research opportunities and results, and to promote the use of research and analysis to inform communications plans and strategies;
• consultation and citizen engagement: cross cutting issues such as the Rural Dialogue and the federal sustainable development strategies;
• media monitoring and analysis: to identify key issues and trends in media coverage of government policies and priorities.

• The Government announcements calendar is a key product of the Secretariat. It is the result of a government-wide process to allow PMO, on behalf of the Prime Minister, to exercise its prerogative in managing the timing and nature of government announcements.

• The Secretariat coordinates the approval of news releases and other public materials originating with other departments. This may involve liaising with appropriate policy secretariats, ensuring that all concerned departments are aware and seeking PMO's agreement approval on selected announcements.

• PCO Communications undertakes (internally or via a contract) media analysis on key topics such as the Speech from the Throne, health care and key pieces of legislation, for:

• the Prime Minister;
• senior PMO/PCO officials.

• A bilingual version of the analysis is posted on the PCO Intranet.

• PCO Communications produces regular and special reports on the public environment of interest to PCO management, drawing from syndicated research purchased by the Secretariat and other sources.

• PCO is responsible for coordinating Question Period (QP) notes for the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Leader in the House, Leader in the Senate, and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs. The QP coordinator works with Legislative Assistants to assess the day's media issues, to decide what issues need to be addressed through QP notes and to frame the questions for the notes. The coordinator works closely with policy secretariats and, in some cases, departments to ensure the quality of advice and to produce timely, effective QP notes.

• The Secretariat also tracks and researches issues, provides collateral material when requested and alerts Ministers' offices to events that may generate questions. The coordinator is in contact throughout the day with the staff of the PMO and the four other PMO portfolio ministers.

• The PCO Communications and Consultations Secretariat - Operations acts as the official spokesperson for PCO. PCO provides support to the Clerk and on-the-record comment when PCO is the initiating department, such as with PCO Estimates or the Clerk's Annual Report. Any media inquiries received by any PCO Official is directed to PCO Communications to be handled by the official spokesperson.