One consultant lobbyist who is also a communications expert who did not want to be named told The Hill Times last week that Mr. Ritz’s (Battlefords-Lloydminster, Sask.) strategy is worse than when more than 20 people died in 2008 from listeriosis.
“I didn’t think that was possible,” the lobbyist said, predicting that “this could be the Tories’ Walkerton.”
The lobbyist, who was referring to the tainted water crisis in Ontario in 2000 when seven people died from drinking E. coli-contaminated water, criticized Mr. Ritz for not showing the public that he was taking charge of the crisis.
“For one thing, he should’ve been in the House. He should’ve taken his medicine the first two or three days of shit and then start recovering. The public loves contrition. ‘Yes, obviously there are some things we thought we improved at the CFIA or the inspection system since the last time, but obviously we have more work to do and this is what we’re doing,’” the lobbyist said Mr. Ritz should have said. “When beef exports were banned in the States because of the BSE crisis, [former prime minister Jean] Chrétien had at least the savvy to go order a steak and make a photo op out of it. It sounded folksy, but it was effective and Canadians bought more beef during that crisis.”
Mr. Ritz was absent from the House of Commons for the first three days after the story broke two weeks ago that XL Foods’ beef products were contaminated with E. coli, and the massive recall of more than 1,800 products. He was in the House last week every day for Question Period answering questions.
NDP MP Malcolm Allen (Welland, Ont.), his party’s agriculture critic, told The Hill Times last week that “as far as informing the public and keeping them informed, he’s done an abysmal job.”
Mr. Allen moved an opposition day motion last week calling for Mr. Ritz to resign. “We obviously have no confidence in Mr. Ritz. That’s why we’ve called for his resignation. We actually believe he’s mismanaged this entire file so that’s why we said it’s time for him to step down,” he said, adding that the Agriculture Minister had no coherent strategy to deal with the crisis.
“Which media strategy exactly? Did he have one? I would suggest that if we were to look at the press conference that ended in absolute shambles out in Alberta where he took really no direct questions of any significance, allowed the CFIA to make some comments and then he was bundled away by Gerry Ritz’s media handler, that’s just not a strategy at all,” he said.
Barry Wilson, a reporter with the Western Producer who has been covering agricultural issues since 1977, agreed. He said if there was a book on how to do communications during a crisis, the best example would have been Michael McCain during the 2008 listeriosis outbreak at Maple Leaf Foods. In contrast, if there were a chapter on how not to do it, the best example would be XL Food’s handling of E. coli, Mr. Wilson said.
In 2008, Mr. Ritz was able to rely on the company to take responsibility, but now he can’t, which makes him look like he’s evading the problems, Mr. Wilson said.
“Mr. Ritz’s instinct is to hide, in the sense behind the process … and doesn’t really deal with the political issue and with the consumer confidence issue,” he said. “It’s just been a difficult and I would say a bit of a public relations disaster, in some ways, just because there’s been little company information and the government’s response has been CFIA is dealing with it and we do know that CFIA dropped the ball early on. Thirdly [they think] S-11 [the Safe Foods for Canadians Act] will solve all our problems, and that’s just so transparently wrong.”
So far, there have been 15 illnesses in four provinces related to tainted beef since the recall began in September. After shutting down the Brooks, Alta., XL Foods plant last month, CFIA has allowed XL to run on a limited basis with extra inspectors on hand.
Last week on CTV’s Question Period, a panel of journalists criticized the government’s communications strategy on the recall. “Where’s the minister?” asked CTV’s Craig Oliver.
The Globe and Mail’s Gloria Galloway said that the situation did not start as a serious crisis, but “turned into one because of the communications debacle around this.”
Meanwhile, she said, it shouldn’t even be Mr. Ritz’s responsibility to take the lead on this file, because “his raison d’etre” as the Agriculture Minister is industry, and not health.
CTV Ottawa bureau chief Bob Fife agreed, saying that it was “a very big mistake” to have the Canadian Food Inspection Agency report to the Agriculture Minister when the Health Minister should have a mandate for food safety. “He’s seen to be far more concerned with the company,” Mr. Fife said.
While Mr. Ritz is barely speaking to the national media, and talking to several local news outlets and farm radio, National Post columnist John Ivison told CTV Question Period that this strategy in itself seems to have worked for the Conservatives in the past as they have been re-elected to government.
He noted that when he first asked the PMO’s communications director Sandra Buckler in 2006 a question, she said, “Off the record, I have no comment.” He noted that since then, they’ve maintained a strategy of “we don’t know what they’re doing so we don’t know what they’re doing wrong.”
Meanwhile, Liberal MP Frank Valeriote (Guelph, Ont.), his party’s agriculture critic, also said that Mr. Ritz has “failed miserably” in communicating to Canadians the extent of the problem. In the process, “he has perpetuated the problem himself. He has eroded consumer confidence because of his continued denials. He has jeopardized the livelihoods of cattle ranchers whose beef is safe,” Mr. Valeriote said. “He should’ve admitted that there was a problem immediately instead of deflecting responsibility and misleading us by telling us the contaminated meat has been contained.”
The lobbyist agreed, saying Mr. Ritz has no effective key messages that he’s been delivering. “I mean what’s the message track? You can’t just repeat that public safety is our number one priority while people are falling over sick around the country and puking their guts out. There’s no credibility,” the lobbyist said.
“If the [CFIA] agency was at least independent and acted proactively, instead of having some junior fart catcher interrupt the head of the CFIA at a news conference people might believe, but now they’re not going to believe anything. You have to have validation. We live in an age where political lies and exaggerations are common place. People know that. Why would they believe any politician, unless the minister is upfront? But he’s not. He’s been evading and avoiding and repeating mindless platitudes. That’s not a communications strategy.”
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: BEA VONGDOUANGCHANH
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