Ontario Government Spent $800,000 on New Advertising for ORPP After Program was Cancelled

This column was published in in the Huffington Post. TORONTO, ON:Documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) through a freedom-of-information request reveal that the Ontario government spent $793,925 on new advertising out of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP) ad budget after cancelling the program.

The new ad buy promoted changes to Canada Pension Plan, an area of federal responsibility. The Premier claimed credit that CPP changes were the result of her government's cancelled ORPP, which she spent $8.2 million advertising. "How much are Ontario taxpayers expected to spend on programs that never happen?" said CTF Ontario Director Christine Van Geyn. "First it's over a billion dollars on cancelled gas plants, $308 million on the cancelled modernization of Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, and $70 million on the cancelled ORPP. But why keep spending money when the government already knows the program is cancelled? This is a political ad buy on the backs of taxpayers, pure and simple." The Auditor General weighed in when the new ads first started airing, stating that the ads were "self congratulatory and aimed at ensuring the government gets credit for the pension initiative versus informing the public with some useful information." At the time, it was unclear if the government had already contractually committed to the ad purchase. The newly released documents reveal that the ad purchase was made after the ORPP was cancelled.

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The ads were developed by Bensimon Byrne, the same advertising firm that did Premier Wynne's election advertising. The firm has done Liberal political work for more than 10 years, including ad campaigns for Dalton McGuinty, Justin Trudeau and Paul Martin. "The Auditor General has said that these ads were partisan and self-congratulatory, and the decision to give the contract to the same ad firm that does Wynne's campaign ads is even further evidence that these ads are political," continued Van Geyn. "Under the old rules, these ads would never have been approved. But the government changed the law so that it can run partisan ads like this these and send the $800,000 bill to taxpayers. The Auditor General's power to review government advertising for partisanship should be restored, and the bill for these ads should be sent to the Ontario Liberal Party." The document obtained by the CTF through Freedom of Information can be found HERE.