Ontario's new 'It's happening here' ads slammed as waste of taxpayers' dollars

A new taxpayer-funded advertising campaign by Premier Doug Ford's government touting the Ontario economy and provincial investments is facing criticism as a wasteful way to spend public money. 

The multi-media ad blitz is entitled "It's Happening Here" and includes TV commercials that have aired during such choice time slots as the Grammy Awards and the NHL all-star game. 

"What if we told you there's a place where it's all happening?" the announcer says in one version of the ad, as a bearded farmer unloads sacks from a flatbed trailer. 

"A place where more people are going to work than ever before. A place that's building new roads and highways," the script continues, under video of commuters on a train, followed by a dog with its head out a car window. 

"And what if we told you, you already live here?" the ad concludes, as the word Ontario appears on the screen. 

WATCH | The 60-second version of the Ontario government's new TV ad:

The campaign also includes radio spots with similar scripting, as well as ads on billboards, transit and social media sites. An official in the premier's office declined to reveal how much the province is spending on the ads.  

"The campaign is designed to instill pride in the many accomplishments of Team Ontario and confidence in the province's economy, especially at a time of global economic uncertainty," said Ford's director of media relations Caitlin Clark in an email to CBC News. 

The cost of the ads will eventually be made public, when the auditor general's annual report on government advertising is released at the end of the year. 

A similar ad campaign called "Ontario Is Getting Stronger" that ran in the months leading up to the 2022 provincial election cost $13.5 million, then-auditor general Bonnie Lysyk said in that year's report.

The NDP's critic on affordability issues, MPP Bhutila Karpoche, says the new advertising campaign shows the government is out of touch with the majority of Ontarians and their struggles.  

"When I see the ad, I see the Ford Conservative government spending money telling the people of Ontario, 'Look how good you have it,'" Karpoche said in an interview. 

"This ad is basically giving themselves a pat on their back for a job well done, when the job is nowhere near being done," she said.

The Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Jay Goldberg, says this is not the sort of advertising that should be funded by public money.