Ontario spent record high on advertising, majority on partisan ads: auditor

The Doug Ford government spent three times as much on advertising last fiscal year compared to the year before, with more than 60 per cent of that funding going toward partisan advertising.

This is “the most the government has ever spent on advertising in a year,” the province’s auditor general wrote in her annual report released Tuesday.

Between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, the Progressive Conservatives spent at least $103.5 million on ads. A good portion of that — about $43.2 million — was spent on the “Let’s Build Ontario” campaign, which included television advertisements in “expensive time slots,” including during NHL games and the Super Bowl.

Auditor General Shelley Spence reports that those “It’s Happening Here” ads, which say that “more people are working than ever before” while touting Ontario’s economy and way of life, cost about $18.8 million as of March 2024. The ads began running in early 2023 and continue to be aired.

These ads were particularly controversial given their high-profile airing times, with opposition parties criticizing the government for spending millions of taxpayer dollars on television ads promoting the PCs’ accomplishments.

Liberal MPP John Fraser has argued that it was not a good use of money, especially as the province undergoes an affordability crisis.