Stephen Harper’s government spent over $50 million on ads in 2012, say records

OTTAWA — The federal government spent tens of millions of dollars in advertising in the last fiscal year led by major multimillion dollar marketing offensives from the Finance Department, and others touting their own policies, say new accounting records tabled Wednesday in the House of Commons.

The Public Accounts of Canada documents, tabled by Treasury Board president Tony Clement, show that the Finance Department, which has been running a long-standing advertising blitz touting the government’s economic policies, spent $15.25 million on advertising initiatives for the fiscal year, which ended on March 31, 2013.

Natural Resources Canada, which has been running its own advertising blitz alleging that the government is promoting “responsible development” of oil, gas and other resources, spent about $8.9 million on advertising in the year.

Overall, the figures suggested that various federal departments spent slightly less than their collective advertising budget which topped $55 million in 2012, according to previously tabled spending estimates.

The total doesn’t include a recently-announced $24 million international marketing campaign for the government to promote the oilsands industry abroad over the next two years. This campaign could be included in next year’s public accounting totals.

Meantime, several other departments also spent millions of dollars on ads over the past year.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada spent about $5.09 million on advertising, followed closely by Health Canada, which spent about $5.03 million on advertising and the Canadian Heritage Department, which spent about $4.6 million on advertising as part of its efforts to promote the anniversary of the war of 1812.

The accounting records also reported that Veterans Affairs spent about $3.42 million on advertising over the previous year, followed by Foreign Affairs, which spent about $1.9 million.

Indian Affairs and Northern Development Canada spent $290,418 on advertising, according to the records.

The numbers also show that the office of the coordinator for the status of women spent $217,729 on advertising for the year.

The government has defended its spending on advertising, explaining that the ads are necessary to inform Canadians on certain issues.

Conservative ministers have also said their government is spending less on advertising than the previous Liberal government.

Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Mike De Souza