Province’s spending on ads hits $18.3M in three years
Saskatchewan has spent $18,300,687 on television and radio advertising from 2014 through March of this year.
The information was provided as a result of an access-to-information request by the Leader-Post.
Crown corporations make up the bulk of that spending: $9,326,513 in television ads and $6,764,698 on radio. That equals 88 per cent of the total spending.
NDP Opposition interim leader Trent Wotherspoon said the government spending is questionable in light of the 2017-18 budget, which eliminated STC and slashed spending to a number of sectors.
“This is a government that has found many ways to waste hardearned dollars of Saskatchewan people, and frankly they continue to,” he said. “Even as this government pushes forward its agenda of desperate sell-offs and callous cuts, they are actually spending taxpayers’ money to promote a political speech of the premier, to promote those cuts, those sell-offs and those tax hikes, and that is offensive to Saskatchewan people.”
Overall, advertising spending on television and radio dropped from $7.6 million in 2014 to $4.4 million in 2016.
Ministry spending on television advertising over the time period through March 2017 peaked in August 2014, when the province spent $433,634.
Crown spending on radio peaked in February 2015 — one month before the 2015-16 budget was released — at $791,196. Radio advertising for government ministries peaked in October 2014, when the province spent $122,510. Crown spending on television ads peaked in May 2015, when $272,749 was spent.
The premier’s office said in a statement that, overall, government ministry spending on advertising has decreased by 63 per cent since 2008-09. It noted that there has not been significant television advertising since October 2014, when the Ministry of Economy ran its ThinkSask campaign focusing on the economic success of the province. Other advertisements paid for by government ministries include campaigns about farm safety, fire awareness, boat safety and driver safety.
When it comes to Crowns, the bulk of the spending is done by SaskTel because it “has to directly compete with other telecommunications companies.”
Other Crown advertisements include SGI’s campaigns against impaired driving and its ads telling drivers to slow down in orange construction zones.
SaskPower has run ads about overhead power lines, while other utility Crowns have advertised the need to “call before you dig.”
Outside of television and radio advertisements, the province also pays for campaigns in print and social media.
Earlier this year, the government paid two Regina-based companies a combined total of $126,000 to advertise and print copies of its 201718 budget, released on March 22.
As of April 4, the government had paid an estimated $40,000 to Print It Centres Signature Graphics to print copies of the documents and an additional $86,000 to the Phoenix Group to promote it, legislative documents show.