NDP SHOULD PAY BACK $1.1M FOR MADE-IN-ALBERTA ADS
Notley’s walk no longer matches her talk on publicly-funded partisan ads
Alberta’s NDP government has spent $1.1 million of taxpayer dollars on its Made in Alberta television advertisements, which critics call blatant pre-election propaganda poorly disguised as legitimate government advertising. The total budget for the campaign is $1.53 million.
Government of Alberta television ads touting the benefits of the made-in-Alberta oil and gas industry strategy should be stopped immediately, and every penny that Premier Rachel Notley’s government has spent on these ads should be paid back in full to the public purse.
While there are many legitimate reasons for a government to advertise, this campaign is not one of them. If a government is rolling out a new program that citizens might not hear about otherwise, advertising makes sense. If there are healthand-safety concerns, such as informing citizens about special vaccination clinics for a dangerous strain of the flu, for instance, that, too, is legitimate.
But this Made-in-Alberta television advertisement is none of the above.
You decide if the following message has provided you — as a taxpayer — with valuable information.
Here is the full, verbatim text of this commercial: “We’ll do it ourselves. Albertans aren’t strangers to a challenge and
we’re not strangers to overcoming them. While we work to get our oil from here to there, we’re also going to refine more, process more and create more of the oil-and-gas-based products the world needs now. Right here at home. The government’s new made-in-Alberta program for oil and gas development is an unmatched investment in ourselves. In modern industry. In training and retraining. With more jobs. Good jobs and prosperous communities. The future is coming and it’s made in Alberta. A message from the government of Alberta.”
Notley and Co. launched the Made-in-Alberta ad during a Dec. 11 media conference. According to the emailed response by a bureaucrat in Treasury Board and Finance, annual advertising spending by the government over the past three years has been about $8 million.
As for the cost of advertising, a government spokesperson wrote: “Fluctuations reflect public need for information from government, and extraordinary campaigns can be accounted for separately. For example, the Keep Canada Working campaign to raise public awareness of the need for export pipelines has a budget of $31 million. On the Made in Alberta campaign, the Alberta government has spent $1.1 million.”
In a separate email from government media communications staff, “the total budget for the (Made-in-Alberta) campaign is $1.53 million.
This budget includes the cost of media and creative development.”
The Keep Canada Working ads are legitimate, as they are run across the country to inform Canadians about the needs for and benefits of pipelines to get our energy to markets other than the United States.
Notley appears to think Albertans are just as dumb as former premier Alison Redford seemed to believe we are.
Before the 2012 provincial election campaign, Redford’s Progressive Conservative government ran radio ads that were just as bad. In that case, the ad said the government would not be bringing in any new taxes. A young man’s voice can be heard saying no new taxes means he can buy a new mountain bike. A woman then cheerily says she plans to buy a candy-apple red cake mixer. The announcer then comes on and says: “No new taxes means you can keep spending money on things that matter to you.”
Those Redford-era radio spots cost taxpayers $425,000.
In an April 2012 column, I wrote the following about those ads: “That money should be paid back in full. (Redford) also spent $100,000 of taxpayer money touring the province with her cabinet as a pre-election push. Meanwhile, until I wrote about it, the government planned to cut funding to Calgary’s DropIn Centre by almost the same amount — $575,000.”
It’s wrong if the Tories spend public money on partisan electioneering, and it’s wrong if the New Democrats do it.
Indeed, even Notley herself condemned this kind of crass electioneering using taxpayer money back when she was still in opposition.
In 2014, Notley said: “Albertans know the difference between right and wrong. It is not acceptable that this PC government uses the public purse as its own personal campaign fund. This doesn’t pass the smell test, and Albertans deserve better,” said Notley.
Leela Aheer, the United Conservative Party’s deputy leader and MLA for Chestermere-Rocky View, urged Notley to just call the election already.
“If the NDP wants to campaign, the premier should call the election instead of wasting tax dollars on ads that don’t even promote a program or service Albertans can apply for.”
Greg Clark, Alberta Party MLA for Calgary-Elbow, is disgusted by the NDP’s partisan ads using public dollars.
“The NDP are just as bad as the PCs, maybe worse,” he said Wednesday. “Advertising that promotes government policy should be banned. Period. Government should only be allowed to advertise programs that Albertans can take advantage of and matters related to public safety.” He’s right.
UCP Leader Jason Kenney says if elected in the spring election, which must be held before May 31, his government will pass legislation to end partisan government advertising and legislatively extend the current blackout on non-essential government advertising to Dec. 1 before an election year.
Clearly, legislation is needed because politicians can’t be trusted to do the right thing once they gain power. To re-quote Notley, Albertans know “what’s right and wrong.” So does she, except now her walk doesn’t match her talk.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Joe Ceci is using taxpayer dollars to hold pre-budget, travelling town hall meetings to get input into his budget. Sounds exactly like what Redford did in 2012. Notley hasn’t even said there will be a budget, but that isn’t stopping Ceci from using taxpayer money to do some electioneering and to pre-position the NDP election campaign.
For a government that has racked up $100 billion in debt, wasting taxpayer money on partisan advertising is scandalous.
The NDP should pay us back our money.