B.C. gov’t cranking out news but few tune in

The B.C. government’s media spin machine right now reminds me of the amplifiers in that movie Spinal Tap: cranked up to 11.

With the May 9 election approaching, the Christy Clark government is pumping out a jaw-dropping number of positive news releases.

In one seven-hour period last Friday alone, the government churned out 29 releases containing $2.3-billion-worth of spending announcements — over $5 million a minute.

Meanwhile, the government is saturating social media with terabytes of happy tidings.

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are awash with pictures and videos of Clark and her cabinet ministers spreading the joy.

The government’s YouTube channel has 2,223 videos. If you watched one every day during your lunch break, it would take over six years to catch every taxpayer-financed happy moment.

If you’re thinking it must take a small army — and a large amount of taxpayers’ money — to produce so much everything-is-awesome content, you’re right.

The Communications and Public Engagement Department is the government’s main public-relations branch. It has a budget of $26.6 million and employs 210 people.

The government has 60 Public Affairs Officers (average salary $72,662, according to watchdog group Integrity B.C.) reporting to 30 Senior Public Affairs Officers (average salary $78,927) reporting to 24 Communications Managers ($83,380) reporting to 24 Communications Directors ($101,000).

There are also three Media Relations Officers ($57,158) who are reporting to two Media Relations and Issue Management Managers ($78,912) and 21 Online Editors (paid by the hour) reporting to a Media Monitoring Services Director ($94,868).

The government also has two full-time photographers who travel with Clark and her ministers to record their activities. The shutterbugs have racked up more than $1 million in salary and travel expenses, including $5,413 to photograph Clark at the UN climate-change conference in Paris.

There’s also something called the B.C. Government Newsroom, with six staff members who produce “news” reports for sites like YouTube and Facebook.

“A lot of them are complete flops,” said Green party leader Andrew Weaver, noting a video on Clark’s much-hyped jobs plans got just 148 views in three weeks and a video of Clark responding to Ottawa’s marine-protection plan got 118 views in three months.

“It’s a waste of money,” Weaver said. “We would put a stop to it.”

NDP leader John Horgan also promised a review of the government’s bloated communications department.

“It’s a self-aggrandizing publicity machine,” Horgan said. “That’s not governing. That’s politics.”

All of this is on top of the government’s current, $15-million advertising blitz, by the way, which the auditor-general just slammed for being too political in favour of the governing Liberal party.

But cabinet minister Andrew Wilkinson — the government’s chief communicator on its communications strategy — defended the expenditures.

“We have introduced new programs that need to have the level of public awareness that is provided by a variety of communications channels,” he said.

Hopefully, you’re now even more aware — of how much it’s costing you.