PCs to restore ad oversight power

TORONTO Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government is breaking an election promise to restore the auditor general’s powers over government advertising.

When they were in Opposition, the Tories railed against changes the Liberal government of the day made to the rules, which the auditor general said reduced her office to a rubber stamp.

They promised during the 2018 election to restore the office’s oversight of government ads, and at various points in the past three years the government has said it was reviewing the issue.

Now, the Tories have decided not to go ahead.

“We have a great working relationship with the auditor general when it comes to government advertising and are maintaining the status quo at this time,” Ivana Yelich, a spokesperson for Premier Doug Ford, said in a statement.

The old rules banned ads as partisan if the intent was to foster a positive impression of government or a negative impression of its critics, but the Liberals amended them in 2015 to say an ad is partisan only if it uses an elected member’s picture, name or voice, the colour or logo associated with the political party or direct criticism of a party or member of the legislature.

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk raised frequent concerns with Liberal ads that she would have deemed partisan under the old rules and critics said it meant the Liberal government was spending millions of taxpayer dollars on partisan advertising.

Lysyk said recently that is not happening nearly as much now as it was under the former government.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the Tories’ decision to leave the rules in place is “hypocritical.”