Ontario government spending $112M on advertising, more than ever before: auditor

TORONTO – Ontario’s auditor general says the provincial government spent the highest recorded amount on advertising last year.

Shelley Spence wrote as part of her annual report today that the government spent $111.9 million on government advertising in the fiscal 2024-25 year.

She says that is $8.4 million more than the previous year, which held the previous record for spending.

Spence says many of the ad campaigns were designed to foster a positive impression of the Progressive Conservatives, rather than give Ontarians information about government programs or services.

The former Liberal government changed advertising rules 10 years ago that drastically reduced the auditor general’s power to veto a publicly funded ad as partisan, and despite promising in 2018 to revert to the former r