April 29, 2005

A new Privy Council Office plan, obtained by CanWest News Service, calls for greater political control over advertising and outlines the government's key priorities, which are identical to the themes outlined by Mr. Martin after he won the leadership and in a major campaign-style speech in Toronto yesterday.

Opposition MPs charged yesterday Mr. Martin is exploiting federal dollars to promote the Liberal agenda in the run-up to a federal election.

"You'd have to be an idiot not to see the connection between the themes of Paul Martin's re-election campaign and the themes stated in this advertising campaign," NDP MP Pat Martin said.

"They are one and the same," he said.

"Telling Canadians what services the federal government offers -- that should be what their advertising should be limited to, and there is clearly crossover."

The document states federal advertising will focus on promoting four areas that happen to be key planks in the Liberal election platform:

- The 21st-century economy, including post-secondary education;

- Social foundations, including access to health care, improved social programs, municipal infrastructure and aboriginal policy;

- Canada and the world, including a strong military, improved Canada-U.S. relations and increased foreign aid;

- Public security, including strengthening borders and combatting terrorism.

The aim of the advertising is to reach families, youth, seniors, business and workers, disabled Canadians, aboriginals and international markets, according to the federal plan that will be submitted to Cabinet on May 17.

The NDP's Martin said he is surprised the Liberal government is engaged in such a massive advertising enterprise in the aftermath of the $100-million sponsorship scandal.

"It takes a lot of balls to embark on another major advertising initiative when we haven't even finished [with] the mess left from the last one," the Manitoba New Democrat said.

"Have they learned nothing about advertising programs? The public won't tolerate huge amounts of money being spent in advertising."

Conservative MP John Williams, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, criticized the Martin Liberals for spending $120-million "to tell Canadians how good they are for doing the things that they are supposed to do anyway."

He also questioned why the government is planning major advertising campaigns on the basis of Mr. Martin's election platform when the government has not won a new mandate from the electorate.

"Before they go off and spend $120-million on a whole bunch of new initiatives, one would have thought they would have either taken these things to Parliament or the country first," Mr. Williams said.

The federal plan also calls for tailoring of advertising to "reflect regional sensitivities and priorities," but Mr. Williams said that would be a mistake given $100-million in missing money that went to Liberal-friendly advertising firms to promote federalism in Quebec.

"You can see where that got them with regional sensitivities. We should stay away from that and address all Canadians equally," he added.

The federal plan states all departmental advertising initiatives must first be approved by Cabinet's all-powerful operations committee and then be submitted to Treasury Board. Any unspent funds at the end of the year would be returned to the treasury.

All emergency advertising -- such as during a SARS-style health crisis -- must also receive the approval of the operations committee, chaired by Public Security Minister Anne McLellan.

When it comes to money for regional advertising, all proposals and spending must be approved by the political minister for each province, who in turn must get the nod from the operations committee.

Bureaucrats have been instructed to prepare their expenditures and detailed marketing plans for each department by Tuesday and a comprehensive package will be reviewed by senior mandarins by May 5.