TORONTO - Ontario's auditor general says the Liberal government is proposing changes to advertising rules that would "gut" her office's oversight and have the public paying for partisan ads.
The government's budget last week mentioned that it would amend legislation to require the government to submit preliminary ads for the auditor general to review, define "partisan" in relation to its advertising and restrict government ads during elections.
Bonnie Lysyk says she's concerned that the proposed changes to the 10-year-old act would place her office in the "untenable and unacceptable position" of approving blatantly partisan ads.
She says the government wants to define partisan by banning the use of an elected member's picture, name, voice or the colour or logo associated with the political party.
Lysyk says in the past 10 years the auditor general has reviewed more than 7,200 ads worth over $400 million and has rejected less than one per cent, for partisan or other reasons.
Now, she says under the proposed amendments the government could run an ad in which ordinary Ontarians touted the government's policies and said the other parties' plans would be bad for Ontario — which Lysyk says most people would find partisan.
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