Scathing auditor general report proves government advertising rules need an overhaul. Pictured: Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Photo Credit: Doug Ford/X.
Too many Ontario families are struggling just to pay their bills. And yet when they turn on the TV to watch a hockey game, they’re bombarded with glitzy government ads that offer no real public information, but cost taxpayers a lot of money.
The rules need to change because politicians shouldn’t be allowed to spend taxpayer money on ads to promote themselves.
The provincial government spent a record high $103.5 million on government advertising in 2023-24, according to a report by Auditor General Shelly Spence. More than two-thirds of that spending was solely to serve partisan interests.
Spence flagged the government’s two most expensive campaigns, costing taxpayers a combined $66.9 million. The “primary purpose” was “promoting the governing party.”
The government wasted tens of millions of dollars more on feel-good ads promoting the Progressive Conservative Party than its entire advertising budget the year prior.
But it gets worse.
One reason the government spent so much on feel-good ads was because it chose to run those ads in some of the most expensive slots possible, including during Hockey Night in Canada and the Super Bowl.
The amount of money the government spent on ads last year was tens of millions of dollars higher than the government’s ad budget during the pandemic. That’s when the government was actually trying to spread information about public health.
To convey just how outrageous the size of the government’s feel-good ad budget is, let’s take a look at how much it spent on public health advertising last year. Take a gander at the auditor general’s report, and you’ll see the Ford government spent just $7 million on public health ads in 2023-24.
That means the feel-good ad budget was more than nine times larger than the public health ad budget.
This scathing auditor general report proves the rules governing government advertising needs an overhaul.
If the government can spend even a single taxpayer dollar on ads designed to make the governing party look good, there’s a problem.
And if the government can spend $66.9 million on those ads, there is a huge problem.
There are two steps the Ford government must take in the aftermath of Spence’s report.
First, all feel-good government advertising must immediately be taken off the airwaves. Taxpayers shouldn’t have to spend another dime on ads that are designed solely to make the governing party look good.
Second, the government needs to introduce legislation that changes the way government advertising works in this province. Other than essential ad campaigns that convey information regarding public health and safety, all government advertising should be banned.
If Premier Doug Ford wants to see ads on TV that make his government look good, they should be paid for by the Progressive Conservative Party and its donors, not Ontario taxpayers.
How would the Tories feel if the shoe was on the other foot? We don’t have to guess.
Ford’s cabinet chair, Vic Fedeli, attacked the Wynne government back in 2016 when the governing Liberals spent $49.9 million on advertising the auditor general labelled as partisan.
“It’s time for the Wynne government to end this shameless self-promotion on the taxpayer’s dime and focus on addressing their years of waste, mismanagement, and scandals,” Fedeli said.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
Ford should listen to the very words Fedeli spoke in 2016 and apply that same standard to his own government.
Shameless government self-promotion paid for by taxpayers must stop and it must stop now.
Jay Goldberg is the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He previously served as a policy fellow at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Jay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
