NDP spending $4.5M on advertising
Despite financial pressures, Hydro and ICBC will run large campaigns
VICTORIA The B.C. NDP government is spending almost $4.5 million to advertise the provincial budget, electricity conservation programs and auto insurance changes, despite sharply criticizing as “propaganda” similar publicity campaigns by the previous Liberal government.
The government has budgeted to spend up to $600,000 to promote last month’s provincial budget through radio, newspaper and social media ads.
As well, B.C. Hydro is spending $3 million on an energy-conservation awareness campaign, and the Insurance Corporation of B.C. is spending $795,000 to explain new government-ordered caps on pain and suffering in minor injury claims.
The advertising campaigns from the two Crown corporations come shortly after Energy Minister Michelle Mungall described Hydro’s finances as a “mess” and Attorney General David Eby called the insurer’s a “dumpster fire.”
Both Crown corporations face significant pressure to hike rates, with the ICBC on track to lose $1.3 billion this year and Hydro unable to freeze rates after the independent power regulator ruled this month that it couldn’t afford to lose the revenue.
The government is in the middle of operational reviews of both corporations to try to find savings.
The financial problems in both Crown corporations present a major risk to the NDP government’s fiscal plan, Finance Minister Carole James said last month. The provincial government is also short of revenue for its housing, child care and health spending, so it raised or introduced several new taxes to generate hundreds of millions of dollars this coming fiscal year.
The financial pressures don’t appear to have diminished the government’s desire to spend large sums of public money on advertising political messages — a tactic exploited most recently by the previous B.C. Liberal government.
The $600,000 earmarked to promote awareness of the NDP’s February budget compares to $663,000 the Liberals spent to advertise their February 2017 preelection budget.
“Some programs like Pharmacare and the new affordable child-care benefit will require people to apply for them, and that’s why we’re making sure to let people know,” James said in a statement. “For example, 240,000 people will have better access to prescription medicines as a result of the Pharmacare investments we made in this budget.”
Premier John Horgan had complained bitterly about the Liberal government’s advertising spending during his tenure as leader of the Opposition. Just months before the 2017 election, he dubbed then-Liberal cabinet minister Andrew Wilkinson the “minister of propaganda” for raising the government’s annual advertising spending from $8.5 million to $15 million.
“How many services would this government be able to provide to British Columbians if it cut back on the propaganda and started delivering programs?” Horgan asked in the legislature at the time.
Now in power, the NDP budget last month projected about $11 million in central government advertising for the coming fiscal year, not counting Crown corporations like the ICBC and Hydro.
The NDP tabled private member’s legislation three times while in opposition that would require government advertising to first get the approval of the auditor general as non-partisan and factual. “We’ll start by ending waste on Christy Clark’s partisan government ads,” the party’s 2017 election platform said. “We’ll work with the auditor general to set strong standards for advertising spending.”
James said involving the auditor general is still being considered as one possibility.
“We haven’t made a determination about what the best route is yet, but we’re still looking at that,” she said.
Liberal house leader Mary Polak said the ad spending and quiet backtrack away from the auditor general is another example of the NDP failing to deliver on its election promises.
“That was a pretty clear commitment from them,” Polak said.
“If they wanted them to vet ads, they could be doing it already. They said it was a good idea — why would it suddenly not be when they are in government?”
Hydro’s advertising includes a TV and social media campaign involving a bearded energy conservation enthusiast who helps residents save electricity by showing them tricks such as putting a towel in the dryer with their wet clothes to speed up drying time.
“We offer a number of conservation programs and different types of billing support,” Hydro spokeswoman Mora Scott said. “Our goal during these campaigns is to raise awareness about the programs we offer and provide tips on how customers can reduce their electricity use to save money on their bills.”
Hydro said it is spending half of what it spent on advertising campaigns in 2010. However, the ads don’t promote awareness of the government’s plan for lifeline rates or grants for those suffering financial hardship, which were announced last month following the B.C. Utilities Commission’s rejection of the NDP plan to freeze Hydro rates for a year.