Wynne Liberals spending millions more on ads: auditor

The Ontario government has ramped up spending on taxpayer-funded advertising that the auditor general believes is primarily designed to make Kathleen Wynne's Liberal Partylook good.

In her new annual report released Wednesday, Auditor General Bonnie Lysykrevealed the government spent $49.9million on advertising in the 2015-16 fiscal year, up from $30 million in 2014-15.

The majority Liberals pushed through a bill in 2015 that changed the rules on government advertising, drastically wateringdown the auditor's powers to reject ads that serve to promote the party in power.

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In her report, Lysyksaid the legislation "opened the door to publicly funded partisan and self-congratulatory government advertising."

"Ontarians have in the last year paid millions of dollars for advertising designed primarily to present the government in a positive light rather than to inform," said the report.

During her news conference Wednesday, Lysykcalled a number of recent government ads "self-congratulatory." She said that under the previous legislation, she would not have approved them "becausethey don't provide any information to the public that they need to know."

Lysyk cited ads for the proposed Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, which the government cancelled before it even began, and ads touting the government's action plan on climate change before it came into effect.

Her audit shows the government spent $5.7 million on pension plan ads in 2015-16, and $2.9 million on climate change ads.

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PC finance critic VicFedeliaccused the Liberals of wasting taxpayers' money on self-promotion.

"They've cancelled diabetes testing strips,they've fired nurses,"Fedelitold a news conference. "In my hometown (North Bay) they're closing 60 beds in a hospital but they can find $20 million for self promotion. That's egregious."