A recent provincial advertising campaign to “let people know” about the redevelopment of Ontario Place cost more than $1.7 million, money one critic says the Ford government is “flushing down the drain.”

The campaign was launched at the end of August last year and ran until mid-December, promoting the government’s plans to relocate the science centre to Ontario Place, along with a privately-operated spa, music venue and new parkland.

It ran under generic language, telling those who saw the commercial to “get ready for a brand new Ontario Place.”

Now, documents obtained by the Ontario NDP reveal that the campaign cost the taxpayer $1.74 million before tax for the advertisements. The government previously declined to reveal the cost.

“This is a callous use of taxpayer dollars,” Ontario NDP MPP Chris Glover said.

“Nobody asked for a multi-billion-dollar, taxpayer-funded luxury spa project in downtown Toronto. Doug Ford knows that this is a bad deal for Ontario. Instead of choosing to do the right thing and cancel it, he is spending millions to advertise his sweetheart deal.”

Premier Doug Ford defended his government’s record spending on commercials to promote its plans, arguing that marketing its ideas and achievements was a key metric of success.

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“We have to promote Ontario,” he said, adding he wanted to push the message domestically and to an American audience as well.

“You have to advertise in business. Another thing I’ve learned in business, when things are going tough, never cut your sales force, never cut your marketing department. They’re the ones that are going to revitalize your company — or in this case, a beautiful destination.”

Minister of Tourism, Culture and Gaming Stan Cho made a similar argument when he defended the campaign to Global News last year.

“I, for one, think it’s something people should get excited about — I’m super excited about it, so we just want to get the word out there,” he said at the legislature.

“Those renderings that we published that are publicly available really, I think, gave people a sense of how transformational this is going to be. The place was sinking into Lake Ontario.”

His office reiterated those comments on Thursday, promoting “the transformation of Ontario Place, with over 52 acres of free public spaces, brand new modernized amenities, green space, family areas, event spaces, playgrounds, and an urban beach.”

The $1.7-million campaign is not the first one the Ford government has run to promote Ontario Place. Some two years ago, the province budgeted $2 million to “raise awareness” about its Ontario Place vision through online, radio, television and billboard commercials that ran for eight weeks.

That campaign, internal documents previously obtained by Global News said, was “in response to some early negative sentiment toward limited aspects of the plan.”

Glover said the money spent on advertising the plan was being wasted.

“Ford needs to stop flushing more tax dollars down the drain and cancel this shady deal,” he said.

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