Doing Business In - Canada

The Public Relations Industry in Canada
The public relations industry in Canada is quite developed in spite of the fact that the critical mass is much smaller than the United States. A maximum of a half a dozen firms can serve major global clients from coast to coast in both official languages.

Apart from a few exceptions, this top ten list is dominated by the major US public relations multinationals, but major Canadian independent PR firms are also in the top positions. This general picture hides important regional nuances and differences. Potential clients should be aware of these differences before making the choice of a public relations partner. Canada also has a considerable number of small and medium sized PR firms of local, regional and provincial importance. A consolidation process is currently going on.

Choosing the right public relations counsel is an important task for any foreign business coming into the country for business.

What can you do to increase your chances of choosing the right partner? Here are a few tips:

• Some provinces have associations of PR firms (Quebec for example) that can constitute a first guide to consult.
   
• Major recruitment firms (Head Hunters) in Canada can also provide you with pertinent advice on who are the most serious and reputable PR firms in Canada.

• Professional associations of PR professionals such as CPRS (Canadian Public Relations Society), IABC Canada (International Association of Business Communicators) or SRQ (Société des relationnistes du Québec) can also be a source of information to help you make your choice of an agency although their purpose is to represent PR practitioners as professionals and not necessarily PR firms

• Talking to the Editors of major trade publications in the communications and marketing areas such as Marketing Magazine, Strategy, Le 30 (publication of Quebec’s Professional Journalists Association) and Infopresse will also provide you with pertinent insights on the current situation of the public relations industry in this country and help you identify the key players. 
   
• Obtaining advice from major Chambers of Commerce or Boards of Trade in major cities or employer organizations can also help.
   
• Finally referring to major PR Networks such as PROI is an excellent source to help identify the right partners for you in a particular country, city or region.

If you are specifically looking for a lobbyist firm, there are currently two different systems in Canada; one for the federal level of government where lobbyists must be officially and publicly registered and another at the provincial level, where there is no compulsory registration and where you must go through the same kind of procedure as with the PR firms.

Once you have found a few firms that could be interesting for your mandate, what are the things you should ask each of them to provide in order for you to make your final decision?

• Their client list with information on the number of years they have been serving each client;
   
• Three formal references from clients that you can contact directly;

• Billings and fees for each firm’s last three fiscals;

• The number of years they have been in business;

• The number of full-time employees on their staff;

• Their specialities or key strengths;

• The location of their office(s) in Canada;

• How well can they assist you in both official languages (French & English)

Conclusion
Doing business in Canada could and should be a very positive experience for foreign businesspersons. Business conditions are generally similar to those of the G8 and OECD countries and of Western world economies.

Taking a closer look at the Canadian consumer’s particularities and being advised by reputable communications specialists from this country, who are deeply involved with the business community and have a profound knowledge of the key stakeholder groups, will provide new players with the right assistance to approach their future business involvement here with confidence and determination. We would be glad to help.

PROI has three Partner Agencies in Canada's three most important markets:

For more information contact:

Montreal
Enigma Communications

• Joanne Paquet - j.paquet@enigma.ca
• www.enigma.ca  

Toronto
Brown & Cohen Communications & Public Affairs

• Kim Cohen - kim@brown-cohen.com
• www.brown-cohen.com   

Vancouver
Reputations

• Michael Davis - mdavis@reputations.com
• www.reputations.com

For more information on doing business in Canada, please consult the following web sites:
http://www.proi.com
http://www.statcan.ca
http://www.strategis.ic.gc.ca
http://www.conferenceboard.ca