Cabinet boosted its election-year government advertising to $140.8 million, the highest figure disclosed to date..According to Blacklock's Reporter, only half the spending was related to pandemic safety measures..“The COVID-19 pandemic remained a high priority,” the Department of Public Works wrote in its Annual Report On Government Of Canada Advertising Activities. Of the $140.8 million in spending, about half, or $62 million, was “spent on COVID-19 related media placements.”.The $62 million COVID-related advertising by the Public Health Agency was the largest share of marketing by any single federal office. The second highest advertising budget was $11.9 million by Statistics Canada to promote the last Census. Figures show that year over year federal spending totaled:.• $42.2 million in 2015, an election year;• $36.1 million in 2016;• $39.2 million in 2017;• $58.6 million in 2018;• $50.1 million in 2019, an election year;• $128.9 million in 2020;• $140.8 million in 2021..Federal advertising is not regulated by law. The Liberal caucus in 2013 introduced a private bill C-544: An Act To Amend The Auditor General Act to appoint a federal commissioner to vet all advertising and monitor spending. The bill lapsed in Parliament and was never adopted by the Liberal cabinet after it won the 2015 election..The Treasury Board in 2016 issued a Directive On the Management Of Communications stating all federal advertising should be “free from political party slogans, images, identifiers, bias, designation or affiliation” including use of a “primary colour associated with the governing party” or “any name, voice or image of a minister, MP or senator.”.“We want to make it absolutely clear from this day forward that government advertising using tax dollars is unacceptable,” then-Treasury Board president Scott Brison told reporters at the time..“To make sure we get this right we’ve asked the auditor general to audit the effectiveness of our new oversight approach.”.Auditors subsequently reported the policy appeared arbitrary and haphazard. “There was little assurance reviews for non-partisanship in advertising were thorough and effective,” the auditor general wrote in a 2019 report Oversight Of Government Of Canada Advertising..“In our view the Government of Canada’s oversight of advertising was not sufficiently robust to ensure the government was meeting its commitment that public funds were not to be spent on partisan advertising.”.Liberal MPs in opposition prior to the 2015 election criticized federal advertising as a waste of money..“That buys a lot of full time nurses, a lot of insulin pumps for kids with Type 1 diabetes,” MP David McGuinty (Ottawa South, ON) told reporters at the time. “It helps with affordable housing, it helps with home care costs.”.“A lot of people within Canadian society have a lot of needs and this is very difficult to justify,” said McGuinty..“In fact, it’s impossible to justify.”
