Let's see un tendered contracts to ad companys

Where have I heard that before let's see oh yes

Ad-Scam,Gomery, GroupAction all things that come to mind.

It seems a Liberal is a Liberal is a Liberal no matter what the Premier claims

Those rates are above the average for communications type work.

In that field $50 - $75 is much more the norm and certainly there is no shortage of people in Victoria and Vancouver that are available and capable of doing the work for that rate.

A typical rate for a consultant is 50% to 100% more per hour than a staff person would get. If you are paying more than that, you are getting ripped off or you are underpaying your staff.

Of course Liberal advice would be worth more wouldn't it? ; )

I disagree, Comm Con. $50-$75 is at the low to medium end I've seen in the market for writing a press release or a speech, editing an annual report, etc

One hopes PACE was hired for its counsel, marketing savvy, etc - I don't think the issue is the rate, or even necessarily their qualifications - it's the circumvention of the rules to get work to friends of the government ... by the government that promised to tender everything

The communications market is screwed up by the people on the political end that way over charge for their services.

For $25-$40 an hour there a lot highly qualified and interested semi-retired journalists or freelance writers. That is the low end

$50-$75 is the middle and normal range

$100 to $150 is over the odds and too much.

In a two tiered tendering process, first for qualifications and second for cost, it would be suprising if the lowest bid of a qualified supplier did not come in at about $45/hour.

Right now the government is getting very good value when it uses an open tender process. As an example, much of the web development work for the government is being done for $37 to $50 an hour. This is a much more specialized and demanding field than communications.

A Registered Professional Forester, much more specialised work and much more training, will earn on average between $50 and $75 per hour as a contractor. The highest in demand RPFs will earn close to $100 hour, but that is not normal.

The PACE rates speak to a salary of $100 000 to $150 000 if it were to be done internally. This is comparable to a Deputy Minister or ADM level of pay.