Political parties should pick up the bill if cabinet ministers want professional photographers to shoot fundraising announcements, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation argues.
“Is it a tool for promoting public policy, or is it a tool for promoting politicians themselves? Should Canadians be bankrolling what is essentially image PR for the politicians?” asks Aaron Wudrick, the organization’s federal director.
In any case, he argues, modern cameras make taking high-quality pictures easy, and a minister’s media staff, who are there anyway, could easily take them.
“Even the point-and-click cameras that anyone can use have improved dramatically in the last ten or twenty years.”
Earlier this week, some questioned the need for spending $6,600 on a freelance photographer to document Environment Minister Catherine McKenna’s role in a climate summit in Paris.
At a news conference Tuesday, McKenna called hiring photographers for events “a longstanding practice under previous governments, including Conservative governments, because clearly pictures are an important way that we communicate the government’s business to Canadians.”
“As someone who uses social media actively, personally I think that there are ways that we can reduce costs,” she added. “We need to revisit this practice.”
People who make a living from photography disagree with Wudrick.
“The digital revolution has changed photography,” says Ian Grant, communications director of the Professional Photographers of Canada. “Now, anybody can buy a camera and anybody can take a picture easily, because of the automation and level of technology of the cameras.”
“What they don’t understand is that as professionals we bring to the table years of experience of capturing different situations, and working with lighting and so forth to take the tool to a whole other level.”
“It’s more than just taking a picture. There’s a lot involved in capturing that picture.”
WATCH: Environment Minister Catherine McKenna says her department will review its policies after it was revealed taxpayers were billed over $6,600 for a freelance photographer to follow her around at last year’s Paris climate summit.
But the events themselves are too scripted to really need a professional photographer, Wudrick argues.
“The vast majority of the images involve important people standing around, posing for the picture. There’s very little variety in these sorts of things.”
Maybe unavoidably, important people standing around, posing for a picture doesn’t make for a lot of visual interest.
It’s perhaps why, when we looked at it on Wednesday, this professionally shot image on the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Flickr page from late July had only had 13 views, or somewhat less than one every two days since it was published.
(That’s Navdeep Bains, Innovation, Science and Economic Development minister, announcing a grant in Sarnia, Ont.)
Philip Proulx, a spokesperson in Bains’ office, explained that staff did take some of their own photos, but hired photographers when they wanted higher-quality results.
The Conservatives also felt the need to document their ministers’ every move — from 2006 to early 2015, taxpayers paid photographers over $2.3 million to document over 2,400 events.
Here’s former Industry Minister James Moore standing in a parking lot in Saskatchewan:
