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OTTAWA — The National Film Board spent $96,000 on focus groups and workshops for its own staff between November and June, including $75,000 to determine office layouts and workplace strategy — a bill the Canadian Taxpayers Federation calls “ridiculous.”

The agency hired consultants at Grisvert Inc. to conduct focus group research on physical office layouts and “organizational transformation” for two new offices in Montreal and Toronto, each project costing $21,000.

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It also hired Deloitte LLP to consult with NFB employees on a “digital workplace strategy,” costing $33,000. About $12,000 was spent on a three-month project management contract, of which a workshop was only one part, while another $8,000 paid for separate workshops..

Aaron Wudrick, president of the CTF, said with the office layout and workplace strategy fees, there’s “no justifiable reason” to spend so much surveying your own staff. Other options are available for free, he noted — typed questionnaires, or websites with anonymous survey forms, for example. He said it was the first time he had seen a government entity focus grouping itself.