The Ford government spent nearly $46 million on two ad campaigns that ran across various social media and video platforms over the course of the 2025-26 year, according to records obtained by the CBC through a freedom-of-information request.
CBC Toronto asked the province to release records that showed the estimated total costs of its Protect Ontario and affordability advertising campaign as well as its Ontario Corps ads between spring 2025 and July 2026.
The expenditure records don’t specify which ads the province spent the $46 million on. They only reference the campaigns.
According to the records, a total of $15 million was approved to spend on advertising for Ontario Corps, which is a province-wide network of volunteers that support their local communities during emergencies such as wildfires and floods.
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A total of $30,984,284.41 was spent on the Ford government’s affordability and Protect Ontario ad campaign. The expenditure analysis record released to CBC Toronto lists tens of thousands of dollars doled out to various vendors for those ads.
The vendors included platforms like Google and Facebook as well as ad agencies Publicis Canada and EssenceMediacom, together receiving millions in payments.
CBC Toronto reached out to the premier’s office and the ministry of emergency preparedness for comment.
In an emailed statement Friday, Joseph D’Angelo, spokesperson for the ministry of emergency preparedness, said government advertising “remains an important tool to highlight some of the ways Ontario is building a more competitive, resilient and self-reliant economy.”
D’Angelo said the Ontario Corps ads helped increase volunteer sign-ups by over 200 per cent. CBC has asked for clarification as to how the ministry was able to attribute the additional sign-ups specifically to its ad campaign.
Ford government spent $40M on pro-Ontario ad campaign
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles called the spending “outrageous” at a time when affordability is top of mind for many Ontarians.
“Instead of actually coming up with solutions … they are instead gaslighting Ontarians into thinking that they’re doing something that they’re not,” she said.
As for the Ontario Corps ads, Stiles said she “doesn’t understand what [the government is] trying to achieve.”
“Advertising the Ontario Corps when the government should have just been showing up is not really paying attention to what people are looking for,” she said, specifically referring to the government’s response to wildfires over the summer and flooding in Ontario earlier this year.
After estimated $360 million in flood damage, why is province saying Niagara residents don’t qualify for aid?
Northern Ontario First Nations leaders criticize province’s wildfire response
The province received backlash over its response to both events. The 2026 Ontario wildfire season, which was the worst on record, prompted Northern Ontario First Nations leaders to renew calls for a public inquiry into the provincial government’s response.
Flooding in the province this past year has also prompted harsh criticism from local communities in areas like the Niagara Region.
Interim Liberal Party leader John Fraser called the ads purely “self-promotional.”
“It’s Doug Ford using taxpayers money, hard earned money, to benefit himself, his party and his government,” he said.
Rules around government advertising were loosened under the former Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne in 2015. The changes prompted former Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk to say the new rules “opened the door” to “self-congratulatory” advertising that would previously not be allowed.
Ford promised to reverse those changes when he was campaigning in the 2018 provincial election, but no changes have yet been put in place.
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