Ontario spent record $112M on taxpayer-funded advertising, auditor finds

Ontario spent a record $112 million on taxpayer-funded advertising last year, and the province’s auditor said 38 per cent of the campaigns were aimed at leaving people with a “positive impression” of Premier Doug Ford’s government and were conducted before the snap election.

Auditor General Shelley Spence outlines the spending in her latest annual report, noting that it surpasses the previous record for government advertising purchases from the previous year by $8.4 million. The spending deep dive looks at the 2024-25 fiscal year, which includes the months leading up to the last provincial election in which the Progressive Conservatives won a third straight majority government.

“There tends to be a little more government advertising right before the election,” Spence said. “And this time it was no different.”

The auditor detected nine campaigns for a total of 43 million dollars — or 38 percent of the province’s total advertising budget — where the primary goal was to foster a “positive impression” of the government or where the government did not provide evidence to support some of its claims.

Spence said the goal of all taxpayer-funded advertising should be to inform Ontarians.

“When I look at the value for money of those ads, we look at whether this tells me something I didn’t know as a person in Ontario,” he said.

“Some of the ads are quite promotional for the ruling party. They don’t actually provide really good, solid information to Ontarians.”

Some ads aim to give a “positive impression” of the government: AG

The auditor flagged concerns with multimillion-dollar campaigns the government ran, such as “It’s Happening Here” ads worth $19.1 million and a “Roads and Infrastructure” campaign that cost nearly $8 million.

Spence said in the “It’s Happening Here” campaign that the ad is designed to improve the impression Ontarians have of the current state of the province. The ads boast of higher wages and employment levels in the province, “the subtext of which promotes the ruling party,” its report notes.

In the “Roads and Infrastructure” ads, Spence found that the government’s claims that the projects would reduce gridlock did not “provide context or evidence” to support its claims. He said the campaign was aimed at fostering a positive impression of the government.

Environment Minister Todd McCarthy defended the province’s advertising spending, saying it was necessary to inform Ontarians and, in some cases, counter U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff plans.

“It’s important to have that educational piece and then tell our story globally,” he said. “For the United States, we have educated the American public with our ads. That influences policymakers. It influences citizens, our friends, our allies in the United States, south of the border.”

Ad spend is ‘taxpayer-funded propaganda’: NDP

NDP Leader Marit Stiles called the advertising spending “taxpayer-funded propaganda” and questioned the Ford government’s priorities.

“These are taxpayer dollars,” Stiles said. “These are your hard-earned dollars being spent on making Doug Ford look good while his life gets harder.”

Liberal parliamentary leader John Fraser criticized the advertising spend, saying it did not reflect the controversial $75 million campaign the Ford government ran earlier this year and which involved former US president Ronald Reagan. Trump cited those television ads as the reason he canceled trade talks between the United States and Canada.

Spending on that campaign was not in the fiscal year captured by this auditor’s report. Taxpayers will have to wait until next year to learn those spending details, even as they see the political fallout in real time, Fraser said.

“The money was spent on a political stunt that blew up the negotiations,” he said. “And it’s not just that people are paying money for that ad. It’s Ontarians who are going to pay with their jobs.”

But one of the most important campaigns of the 2024-25 fiscal year was an anti-tariff ad aimed at the American public. Ontario spent $40 million on a series of prime-time television ads that focused on the benefits of the province’s partnership with the United States.

According to figures in the auditor’s report, the Ford government has spent approximately $452 million on taxpayer-funded advertising since coming to power in 2018.

Before 2015, government ads considered partisan were prohibited if the intent was to foster a positive impression of the government or a negative impression of its critics. But the then Liberal government changed the rules and, despite promising during the 2018 election to undo the changes, the Progressive Conservatives decided to keep them after forming government.

Spence once again renewed his calls for reform in his annual report.

“We continue to recommend that previous versions of the Government Advertising Law be restored,” he said.

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The auditor’s report comes months after mandatory election spending disclosures showed Ford PCs spent more than $6 million more than their rivals during the court order period.

The PC Party spent $15.3 million on its campaign, well ahead of the Ontario Liberals, who spent $8.9 million, the Ontario New Democrats, who spent $8.5 million, and the Green Party, which spent $1.4 million.

Advertising was the largest campaign expenditure of all of Ontario’s major political parties during the election. Financial statements show the Conservatives spent the most on advertising during the campaign, $7.6 million, closely followed by the Liberals at nearly $6.6 million, while the NDP spent $5.4 million. The Green Party spent $750,000.

Opposition parties have complained that the use of government advertising gave the Conservatives an unfair advantage in the election.