NDP revives Tory bill curbing taxpayer-funded partisan ads

The New Democrats are reviving a Progressive Conservative bill from the Tories’ opposition days in a bid to embarrass Premier Doug Ford’s government for its taxpayer-funded partisan advertising binge. NDP MPP Taras Natyshak tabled private member’s legislation identical to a bill introduced by Tory MPP Sylvia Jones two years ago that would revive the auditor general’s powers to veto commercials deemed to be politically partisan.

“I assume the Conservatives will support this because they already did,” Natyshak (Essex) told reporters Wednesday at Queen’s Park.

“Voting against this bill would be the height of hypocrisy,” he said, noting Jones and much of Ford’s cabinet strongly endorsed the measures in 2017.

“That’s the kind of ugly, twofaced double-dealing that no one wants to see.”

In 2015, the Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne watered down legislation that had been implemented by her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty.

Since then, auditor general Bonnie Lysyk has complained that her office is no longer empowered to look at taxpayerfunded ads for “factual accuracy, context or tone to determine whether an item is partisan.”

“We recommend that the previous version of the Government Advertising Act, 2004 as it appeared on June 3, 2015, be reinstated,” Lysyk wrote in her annual report last December.

Jones, who is now the solicitor general, implored the legislature in 2017 to restore the auditor’s power over government advertising.

“If the Liberal party wants to spend money promoting their policies, have at it. But this is taxpayers’ money that should be going to important issues,” the Dufferin-Caledon MPP said at the time.

While the Tories promised to reinstate the auditor general’s veto during last June’s election campaign, they are now noncommittal.

“We’re reviewing it,” said Treasury Board president Peter Bethlenfalvy said, defending the government’s current advertising blitz. “But right now we are focused on making sure the people of Ontario are aware of the impacts of the carbon tax, which was just initiated by the federal government.”

In response to the federal Liberals’ plan, the provincial Tories have launched a flurry of initiatives that might be deemed partisan, including mandatory gaspump stickers and radio ads that hit airwaves Wednesday to attack the carbon-pricing scheme. As disclosed by the Star, the government will begin airing TV ads next month as part of the publicly funded ad campaign.

While Bethlenfalvy couldn’t say how much the advertising would cost, it is part the $30 million earmarked to combat the federal plan. About $1 million has been spent so far on a constitutional challenge in court.

The government is also requiring gas stations to post stickers on their pumps to warn motorists of the cost of the carbon-pricing initiative.

Scofflaws face fines of up to $10,000 a day if they fail to use the decals.