The Liberal Government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is being criticized for spending $233,000 on focus groups that revealed their messages are not resonating with Canadians.
The studies, conducted by Environics Research for Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s office, aimed to gauge public reaction to signature spending initiatives that are designed to help the middle class. The focus groups concluded that the government performed well when it comes to improving relations with First Nations, legalizing marijuana and improving Canada's international image.
However, the focus groups also found that middle class Canadians don't feel their lives are improving and don’t feel that Ottawa is helping them. Study participants spoke of the difficulty of affording a home, the high cost of living and decreasing salaries, even as the federal government was singing the praises of its $24 billion Canada Child Benefit — monthly, tax-free payments made to eligible families to help with the cost of raising children.
“There was almost no awareness of anything the federal government had done to help people with the rising cost of living,” the Environics report states.
Focus group participants also reported being deeply anxious about what jobs will look like in the new economy, describing the workplace of the future as a lonely place with more people working from home, robots taking over and jobs becoming increasingly temporary and unstable.
Other, more tangible items — such as the 2018 Budget's focus on gender equality — also failed to register deeply with voters, the report said. It recorded only a “vague recollection about the gender statement in last year's budget.”
Opposition politicians have been attacking the Liberals in the House of Commons over spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on “politically motivated” focus groups that appear to tell the government nothing of consequence or value. Minister Morneau has defended the focus groups as a means of communicating with Canadians.
