Amid concerns over pipeline proposals and mining disasters, it may not be a shock Canadians’ trust in corporation has dipped in the past year.
What is surprising, according to Edelman’s Trust Barometer, is the degree to which that trust has eroded in such a short amount of time.
This year, Canadians’ trust in corporations has dropped 15% to 47% compared with 62% a year prior, according to the public relations firm’s 15th annual report.
“It was essentially one of the biggest hits anywhere globally,” said Kim Peacock, general manger of Edelman’s Vancouver office.
Along with Edelman Canada CEO John Clinton, Peacock is discussing the results from the company’s annual trust barometer at the Vancouver Board of Trade February 11.
Edelman conducted interviews with 33,000 people across the globe — 6,000 of whom were oversampled as members of the “informed public” as defined by level of education and household income.
The company tallied the results and found Canadians’ trust in non-governmental organizations remained flat at the same time trust in government and media fell.
“But business took the biggest hit,” Peacock said. “That was the thing that really stuck out for Canada.”
In the U.S., trust in corporations actually went up 2 percentage points from 58% in 2014 to 60% in 2015. In China, it fell from 77% to 70% between 2014 and 2015.
The rate of Canadians’ trust in corporation most closely aligned with Japan (48%) and Argentina (46%).
Peacock said the four industries to rank lowest in the trust barometer were in chemicals (37%) and energy (49%) — both of which fell 10 percentage points compared with last year — followed by the consumer health (56%, falling 12 points) and automotive sectors (50%, falling 13 points).
Edelman examined media coverage to see what could be behind some of these slides and although Peacock said there was no single dominant chemical-related story throughout the year, she acknowledged the “fallout from Mount Polley” could have played a role in the sectors’ drop in trust.
In August, a dam containing tailings from the Mount Polley copper-gold mine collapsed in B.C.’s Cariboo region, unloading 10 million cubic metres of water and 4.5 million cubic metres of slurry.
Meanwhile, Peacock said all the media coverage surrounding the oil sector and proposed pipelines were the likely causes behind the big dip in standing for the energy sector.
For those whose trust in corporations decreased, Edelman researchers asked respondents for their reasons.
The study found 53% of them believed it was because corporations failed to contribute to the greater good. Meanwhile, for those Canadians whose trust increased, 66% of them said it was because corporations contributed to economic growth.
Peacock said this year’s results show the need for transparency has never been more important for businesses attempting to rebuild trust with Canadians.
“Looking at the sources of information that people trust now, we’ve seen a huge change in that over 15 years,” she said.
“Sometimes businesses are challenged by it because technology as changed so that they probably feel more transparent than they’ve ever been and there’s just so much that businesses cannot control anymore.”
