I listened closely to the debate this afternoon on opposition day motion number 3. As the parliamentary assistant to the President of the Treasury Board, I appreciate the opportunity to respond on behalf of our government.

I also appreciate the motion’s reference to $17.4 million in partisan advertising under the former Liberal government. As some members will recall, the Auditor General, at the time, concluded that the Liberal government’s advertising campaigns on everything from hydro rates and cap-and-trade to education and retirement were not just partisan, but they “did not provide viewers with any useful information.” Often, she concluded that the Liberal government’s ads were actually misleading. For example, the Wynne government spent over $8 million on ads for their proposed retirement plan that never actually came into effect. As the Auditor General wrote, these ads often “overlapped with Ontario Liberal Party ads,” and they went on air in 2015, during a federal election campaign that included disagreements between Premier Wynne and Prime Minister Harper.

When this government was elected, we cut provincial spending on advertising by about 75%, from $62.6 million in 2017-18 to $16.4 million in 2018-19.

But all members should recognize that the government’s advertising can also play an important role in informing the public about policies and services that affect their everyday lives. This was never more clear than during the pandemic. And I’m sure I don’t have to remind the members about the early days of COVID-19, four years ago.

With the pandemic behind us, as I begin my remarks, I want to give members another more recent example. Opposition day motion number 3 says that the Auditor General found that the government spent “$24.89 million on partisan ad campaigns, including $20 million to promote the Ministry of Health.” But this includes ads with very important information about new programs and services, including, for example, allowing pharmacists to treat people for 19 common conditions like acne, pink eye, and yeast infections. Since the beginning of last year, over 700,000 people have received treatment at 4,600 pharmacies, and that’s 94% of all pharmacies in Ontario. Justin Bates, CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists Association, said that this policy is having a “tremendous impact,” making it easier for Ontarians to get the care they need. It’s helping to free up family doctors and hospitals so they can deal with more complex conditions. This has been a great success, but it never would have been possible without government advertising to ensure that the people know about the new policies and the new services available at their local pharmacies.

Just in case the members opposite missed it, the Auditor General actually included one of the government’s ads about this program on the cover of her annual review of government advertising in December 2023.

The Leader of the Opposition’s motion claims that the Auditor General found this was a partisan campaign to promote the Ministry of Health, but respectfully, this wasn’t a partisan campaign, and the Auditor General did not find that it was. She actually wrote the opposite. On page 3 of her review, she wrote that most of the health care ads she reviewed included “new information about health care services.” The goal was not to promote the Ministry of Health, but to educate and inform the public about the important new health care services.

Speaker, at this point, I believe it would be helpful for all members to provide some background on the legislation, regulation and policies that govern all provincial advertising in Ontario so that we can all understand what is permitted and what it is not.

Let’s start at the beginning. My ministry, the Treasury Board Secretariat, is responsible for the Government Advertising Act. TBS is also responsible for the bulk media buy fund. And finally, Supply Ontario, an agency of TBS, is responsible for the procurement directive on advertising, public and media relations, and creative communication services.

The Government Advertising Act defines government advertising as advertising paid for by a government office, including ads that are published in a newspaper or magazine, displayed on a billboard or on public transit, displayed digitally, or broadcast on radio or TV or in a movie theatre.

Speaker, let me be clear: Governments of all parties have paid for advertising to educate the public about new programs, plans, services or policies. It is important that the people of Ontario know what the government is doing, especially when there are changes to programs and services or changes to their rights and responsibilities.

Advertising can also be used to encourage behaviour in the public interest or to discourage behaviour that may be harmful, and to promote our province as the best place in the world to invest, live and work—“A place to stand, a place to grow.” Do you remember, Speaker—some members may not—that this piece of government advertising, which was produced by the government of John Robarts, actually won an Academy Award in 1968?

This isn’t a partisan issue. All governments have good reasons for advertising in Ontario that are a prudent and responsible use of the public purse. For example, recent provincial advertising has educated people about actions you can take to prepare for emergencies and the importance of improving accessibility. It has also promoted Ontario as a tourist destination for people outside the province and for people outside Canada.

The Government Advertising Act includes very tight restrictions on the content of these government ads to ensure they do not benefit any politician or political party. Some members might benefit from a review of these rules. Section 6 of the act prevents any advertising that includes the name, voice or image of a member of this House unless the main audience is outside Ontario. Ads that include the name or logo of a recognized party are not allowed, and neither is criticism of any recognized party or any member of this House. The act even prevents the use of colours associated with the governing party.

Speaker, without even a single exception, this government has followed these rules. The Auditor General has reviewed our ads, as required by the act, and confirmed that they all comply with the rules.

The government has also ensured that our advertising is delivered in the most efficient and cost-effective way to maximize value for taxpayers. It is important for us to understand this process. When any ministry requests advertising, there is a comprehensive approval process. It begins with the fiscal planning process that I spoke about earlier this month. Line ministries create advertising proposals with the timing, content and budget for their proposed ad campaigns. Then, the Cabinet Office plans and develops all advertising for the year, including a central marketing plan, with contributions from all line ministries. Members can imagine the coordination that this takes, but it is necessary to prevent ministries from competing with each other when buying media time, in order to get the best value for our tax dollars. In today’s media environment, it is absolutely necessary to avoid a situation where there are too many government ads at any given time.

Cabinet Office also helps to find similar priorities between ministries and avoid duplication in our ads, which generates savings for the province. The central marketing plan allocates funds from the bulk media buy account, based on the needs of the line ministries. However, as we saw during the pandemic, sometimes new and urgent advertising campaigns are proposed during the fiscal year, and these are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. I want to thank my friend Michelle DiEmanuele and her team at the Cabinet Office for all the work they do on this every year, including work with our team at the Treasury Board, to ensure that funding is available from the bulk media buy fund.

Earlier, I mentioned Supply Ontario. I want to take a moment to outline their important role in this process as well. As the new home for the procurement of provincial advertising, Supply Ontario maintains lists of approved vendors for advertising, to help promote openness, fairness and transparency. Every vendor that we use must be on one of these lists. And for larger ad campaigns, these vendors are invited to bid in a competitive procurement. This is done to ensure that every campaign and every ad meets all government requirements.

As I mentioned earlier, the Auditor General also has an important role in this process. Sections 4 and 5 of the Government Advertising Act require the government to submit most ads to the Auditor General for review and approval before they can be used. There have been several cases when the Auditor General found ads had to be changed in order to comply with the act. But in each and every case, the minister made the required changes, and the new ads were approved. At this point, the minister can begin their campaign. Paid media space is purchased through the provincial media-buying agency of record. This agency of record is clearly checked to ensure it maintains the highest standards of ethics and professionalism. Once the campaign is complete, the minister prepares a request for funding from the bulk media buy fund of the TBS, which supports the purchase of media time, creative research and production costs, to pay for provincial government advertising, while ensuring value for money.

Speaker, I want to raise a small but important point here. While the bulk media buy fund supports most expenses for government advertising, there are also a limited number of revenue-generating ad programs that are funded outside the bulk media buy fund. This includes advertising related to Ontario Parks or provincial tourist attractions or events, plus the advertising of provincial agencies like the LCBO, Metrolinx, and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. These organizations oversee, conduct, procure and pay for their own advertising. Just to take one example, Metrolinx has a campaign now to raise awareness of the One Fare program, which is saving commuters an average of $1,600 each year. However, all other advertising is reviewed by TBS. Any related financial documents are submitted to TBS, including every relevant invoice. The Treasury Board carefully examines all requests for government advertising funds based on the relevant legislation and policy. If approved, transfers from the fund are made by the Treasury Board.

Speaker, this process is not unique to Ontario. In fact, the centralized management of government advertising budgets is consistent with best practices in large organizations and governments around the world.

As I said, each and every advertising campaign has been subject to the same rules, and these rules have been followed without any exception.

At this point, I would like to provide some details about some of the advertising campaigns that we have funded, about how they all have an important, non-partisan purpose, and about how they follow all of the legislation and regulations that govern all provincial advertising.

Speaker, as we have said many times before, the health and safety of the people of Ontario is the government’s highest priority.

Some members will recall returning to the House on this day, four years ago, to listen to Minister Rod Phillips speak about Ontario’s first action plan on COVID-19. There was confusion everywhere. Many people didn’t know where to turn for information they could trust. For this reason, some of this government’s most important advertising campaigns were about urgent public health and safety information for all Ontarians. I’m very proud of the government’s record on this. Provincial advertising helped Ontarians understand how vaccines would stop the spread of COVID-19, and it helped us achieve one of the highest vaccination rates in the entire world. At the time, we were asked to provide proof of vaccination to enter certain buildings and events. As the members will recall, to make the process easier, we launched enhanced vaccination certificates with official QR codes and Verify Ontario, a free made-in-Ontario app, to make it more convenient to provide proof of vaccination while also protecting privacy. This was about keeping people safe. But for sure, for most Ontarians, it was a completely new experience, so public advertising was essential. Again, all of this advertising was reviewed and fully approved. And the results speak for themselves: This advertising helped to keep people safe during the pandemic.

But it is also important to make sure that the people of Ontario know that their government is working for them to build a stronger, better health care system. Ontarians deserve to know exactly how their tax dollars are being spent. That’s why there was an ad campaign to inform the public about the province’s work to hire more doctors and nurses, reduce surgical wait times, and support new hospital infrastructure projects. I know the members opposite don’t like hearing this, but the numbers are worth repeating, because under this Premier, Ontario has a great story to tell. Provincial spending on health care and long-term care has increased from $59 billion in 2017-18 to $81 billion this year; that’s an increase of 40%.

As I said here just last week in our debate on the Supply Act, in my community of Mississauga–Lakeshore, funding for Trillium Health Partners has increased from $821 million in 2018 to $1.2 billion this year; that’s an increase of almost 50% in five years.

We’re investing over $48 billion in the largest hospital building program in Canadian history, with the largest and most advanced hospital to be built in my riding of Mississauga–Lakeshore.

We’re also investing $6.4 billion to build and upgrade almost 60,000 long-term-care beds—the largest long-term-care building program in our history.

Last November, I helped open the largest long-term-care home in Ontario, for 632 residents in my community, at Wellbrook Place. We do everything big in Mississauga–Lakeshore. And again, with 632 long-term-care beds—that’s more than the former Liberal government built from 2011 to 2018, in just one location.

And since 2018, we have added 10,400 new doctors and over 80,000 new nurses to the health care system across the province.

Madam Speaker, these are the facts. It is absolutely essential that all Ontarians understand the investments that their government is making in our public health care system. When some members of the opposition say that the government is starving our health care system, it is important that Ontarians understand that this simply isn’t true.

Again, these ad campaigns have followed the strict approvals process that I’ve already outlined.

The Ministry of Health is not the only ministry that uses advertising to inform the public. The Minister of Transportation has also used advertising campaigns like the Winter Safe Driving campaign to help save lives across the province. I’m sure members have noticed that although it is technically spring, drivers are still dealing with winter driving conditions in many parts of Ontario. Unfortunately, collisions on our roads are about 10% higher in the winter months compared to the rest of the year. The Winter Safe Driving campaign, which started on November 1 and wraps up at the end of March, was designed with the goal of reducing collisions, injuries and deaths on our roads. I think all members would agree this is a very important initiative. Among other things, the campaign promotes the Ontario 511 app.

I’m sure all members are aware, but just to reiterate, Ontario 511 is a phone app, a website, a social media account, and a toll-free bilingual hotline. It provides valuable real-time information on highways, construction, weather and traffic to help Ontario drivers safely plan their route. This service can be a real lifesaver, especially in any emergency. I know that the Commissioner of Emergency Management Ontario, who is actually my neighbour in the Whitney Block, agrees that Ontario 511 is a valuable tool. To promote it, the government has a comprehensive and bilingual campaign, including 18 digital displays, six online videos, four ads on a popular music platform, and two banner ads on YouTube. This campaign is still running now, so we don’t have the results at the present time, but it is important for me to note that the most up-to-date information is used to evaluate all provincial ad campaigns after they are completed. Again, this comes down to fiscal responsibility and transparency. All campaigns supported with the taxpayers’ money should be run in the most cost-efficient way possible.

It is also important that the people of Ontario know about some of the historic investments that the government is making in our transit and highway infrastructure, including the $71 billion for transit and the $28 billion for highways. These are historic investments.

And I just want to pause for a moment here to thank the federal government for cancelling their EA so we can get shovels in the ground on Highway 413.

I should also thank the Supreme Court, which found last year, in a 5-2 decision, that the federal Impact Assessment Act is unconstitutional.

Speaker, another important purpose of our government’s advertising is to promote our province to investors around the world.

I would like to take an opportunity to talk about some of the great work that the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade has done in this area. Four years ago, he created Invest Ontario to promote Ontario as open for business, attracting new investments and bringing thousands of well-paying jobs to communities across Ontario. To do this, Invest Ontario has used advertising around the world to promote the province and our amazing investment opportunities. And the results have been incredible.

I know the members opposite don’t like hearing this, but this is worth repeating because this is great news for this province. Under this Premier, the province has attracted over $28 billion of new investment from global auto manufacturers in the last three years alone. Last year, in 2023, Ontario created more manufacturing jobs than all 50 US states combined. In fact, since 2018, Ontario has added over 715,000 new jobs. And I could go on.

I think it’s fair to say that at least part of this progress is because of effective advertising campaigns from Invest Ontario. And the evidence supports this. Before their advertising campaigns began, the Ministry of Economic Development found that only 2% of international investors could name Ontario. Just to be clear, these valuable investors, who countries, states, and provinces around the world were trying to attract, could not even identify our province. But the latest numbers tell a very different story. In a survey during the ad campaign, these investors were 13% more likely to recognize Ontario as an attractive destination for auto sector investment, and an incredible 41% more likely to invest in Ontario.

So what happened? The answer is simple: Effective and efficient international advertising campaigns have raised awareness of Ontario as a great destination for international investment. And as I said, this awareness has translated into real investments in the future of this province, worth tens of billions of dollars, and thousands of new jobs.

Since 2020, Invest Ontario has secured $2.4 billion in investment directly, creating over 2,600 jobs. And I believe this is just the beginning at Invest Ontario. Their 2024 International Foreign Direct Investment campaign has reached millions of potential decision-makers in six major international markets. These markets were chosen because they represent the greatest opportunity for large-scale investment in Ontario’s key sectors: the auto and EV sector, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and critical technologies. The campaign was designed to use media platforms where senior decision-makers spend most of their time, including places like business class airport lounges and popular investment websites. The results of this most recent campaign are not available yet, but I believe it will build on the progress we have made so far, and I’m excited to see how Invest Ontario will continue to provide value through its cost-effective, targeted and carefully designed advertising campaigns.

Speaker, I would like to thank all members for being here this afternoon and taking the time to listen to the government’s response to opposition day motion number 3.

I’d just like to reiterate that this government’s use of advertising is well within the requirements of the Government Advertising Act. All of the rules of financial oversight have been followed, without a single exception. It has been a pleasure for me to speak about the high standards of oversight and approval that each and every government advertising company must meet.

In closing, I also want to thank the Minister of Health, the Minister of Transportation and the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, and all of our other colleagues, for the important advertising campaigns they put forward for the people of this great province of Ontario. I’m proud of all the work they’re doing, and I’m certainly not going to apologize that we’re making sure Ontario is well informed about how their government is working for them to build a stronger province. The Premier made an important announcement about this in Mississauga this morning, and I know the Minister of Finance will have more to say here tomorrow.

Moving forward, I hope that the members opposite can find their way to standing with us, instead of standing in the way of the work that we are doing to build a better province here in Ontario for future generations. I know that our colleagues here are supportive of this.

Thank you, Madam Speaker, for the time today to speak.