By now youB次元官网网址檝e probably seen the provincial government ads, on TV or Facebook, with cute children lined up for a footrace at their school track meet.
They are interspersed these days with ads urging people to sign up for trades training, an extension of the B次元官网网址淏.C. Jobs PlanB次元官网网址� blitz that surrounded Premier Christy Clark before the 2013 election.
Not yet on TV, but waiting in the wings, are exciting new exemptions from B.C.B次元官网网址檚 property transfer tax (for buyers of new homes only) and expanded Medical Services Plan premium assistance, which will be pitched mainly to seniors. Both measures were announced in the February budget.
ThatB次元官网网址檚 public service advertising, explained a stone-faced Andrew Wilkinson, minister responsible for the wave of government ads that will crest next spring. The track meet spot is to remind parents of kids born after 2006 that they can receive a $1,200 grant by setting up their childrenB次元官网网址檚 Registered Education Savings Plan at an eligible bank or credit union.
The TV spot for the education grant has a confident narrator speaking as the plucky multicultural kids begin their sprint: B次元官网网址淏.C.B次元官网网址檚 plan to protect CanadaB次元官网网址檚 Strongest Economy is working. Balanced Budget 2016 means we can keep taxes low and invest in B.C. families.B次元官网网址�
They used a male narrator, I suppose so it wouldnB次元官网网址檛 sound too much like a Christy Clark campaign speech broadcast at taxpayer expense.
[See 30-second TV ad below]
This grant program is a leftover from the Gordon Campbell years, when the province banked $1,200 per child from its natural gas windfall on behalf of kids born after 2007. The Clark government expanded eligibility by a year and has made a series of announcements as the money was doled out directly to parents.
The ads are working, Wilkinson assured reporters. Monitoring has shown a B次元官网网址渟ubstantial increaseB次元官网网址� in parents signing up to receive the grant.
Two cheers. With the help of sophisticated marketing, the B.C. government is able to give money away with brisk efficiency, as they did with the rebate to parents in the midst of the last teachersB次元官网网址� strike.
The Trudeau Liberal government has begun to rein in federal government advertising, which grew to new heights with the Stephen Harper governmentB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淓conomic Action Plan,B次元官网网址� the model for ClarkB次元官网网址檚 blue-tinted B次元官网网址淛obs PlanB次元官网网址� series.
Federal Treasury Board President Scott Brison has started with a ban on taxpayer-funded ads in the three months preceding a scheduled federal election. His B次元官网网址渋nterimB次元官网网址� measures also include banning the use of party colour schemes in taxpayer-funded ads, and promoting programs that donB次元官网网址檛 yet exist.
Wilkinson declared that the B.C. Liberals had not stooped to that level, as the Harper Tories did with a proposed program to retrain unemployed people.
B次元官网网址淥ur advertisements are fact-based,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淭heyB次元官网网址檙e based on existing programs that have been budgeted, and theyB次元官网网址檙e designed to engage British Columbians.B次元官网网址�
The Trudeau government has not yet delivered on its election promise to appoint an independent advertising commissioner, to work out of the federal Auditor GeneralB次元官网网址檚 office. ItB次元官网网址檚 unfortunate that yet another expansion of the bureaucracy is needed to keep politiciansB次元官网网址� hands out of the till, but we seem to have reached that point in Canada.
There have been no such reforms proposed for B.C., or as it is currently known, B次元官网网址淐anadaB次元官网网址檚 Strongest Economy.B次元官网网址� At least weB次元官网网址檝e been spared the bill for boasting about B次元官网网址淭he Best Place On EarthB次元官网网址� in recent years.
The B.C. NDP has advocated an Auditor General-run system for keeping partisan politics out of government advertising.
For the second year, the NDP bill to compel that was tabled and ignored by the government.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca Twitter: @tomfletcherbc
