Canadian Government Executive - Volume 26 - Issue 04

By Elizabeth Seymour and Michael A. O’Neill Embrace the Transformation Government Communications in a Pandemic 18 / Canadian Government Executive // September/October 2020 COVID-19 I t would not be an overstatement to liken the news releases, pub- lic statements, public service an- nouncements, and daily press briefings as a deluge and possibly the most significant government commu- nications campaign since World War II. On a typical day in March and April, Ca- nadians were receiving news and critical public health information from all three levels of government, multiplied by many more departments and agencies; and this advice often differed from government to government, city to city. Pandemic communications had many messengers, reflecting the divided responsibility for public health in Canada, and looking back, the pandemic exposed the advan- tages and shortcomings of multiple mes- sages, delivered by multiple messengers through multiple channels, all targeting Canadians at the same time. This is not intended as a criticism, but rather as an observation. The first three ment communication consists mostly of the planning and management of public relations activities focused on announce- ments of policy and program initiatives - the so-called “announceables.” By con- trast to the strategy’s planned and delib- erate approach, tactical communications were responsive and rushed and con- cerned with issues management. Where strategic communications focus on “good news”, tactical communications are fre- quently defensive, as they strive to blunt or deflect the impact of “bad news.” As an illustration that the urgent trumping the important, government communicators will readily admit that tactical commu- nications receive the greatest portion of ministers and senior officials time and at- tention and consequent resources. Social media and various sources of information and misinformation, as well as a plethora of other experts, compound this. In normal times, the management of government communications exists due to months of the pandemic offers many les- sons for communicators across all levels of government. With this article we pro- pose some early lessons learned about communications during the pandemic, but mostly call for an appraisal of what worked (and what didn’t) in preparation of a possible second wave of the pandem- ic or for a crisis of similar scope in the fu- ture. Through the lessons learned, what we propose draw principally on the expe- rience of the federal government, which should also have relevance to communi- cators in other levels of government. Communications in a pre-COVID world Anyone with experience in government will know that communications shops of- ten operate in perpetual “crisis” and rapid response mode. In normal times, govern- ment communications can be divided into two approaches: strategic and tacti- cal. The strategic component of govern-