Ottawa Spent More Than $16M on ‘Climate Crisis’ Ads Since 2022

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault speaks to the press during the Climate Positive Energy Initiative conference in Toronto on Aug. 10, 2023. Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press

Environment Canada has spent more than $16 million in the past two years on “climate crisis” advertising, according to government documents.

The advertising statistics were published March 18 in response to a parliamentary question filed earlier this year by Conservative MP Gerald Soroka.

Environment Canada spent $3.9 million on advertising in 2023 and has already spent more than $2 million on advertising so far this year. Cinema, television, print, and digital ads and search engine marketing were in the budget both years. Social media ads were also a part of 2023’s advertising dollars.

Environment Canada awarded contracts to various advertising agencies and others, giving $3.9 million to Quebec-based Cossette Media Inc., which is described in the parliamentary report as the agency of record for media planning and media buying in 2022.

The ministry gave the same company $5.8 million the following year, along with a further $645,040 for media planning and buying. Ogilvy Canada, an advertising agency based in Toronto, received $1 million for “strategy, creative development, web and production.”

Ottawa spent approximately $140.8 million in advertising during the COVID-19 pandemic, the highest rate of spending by any Canadian federal government in history.

The Public Works Department released a report that contained figures from April 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as a high priority during that period. Roughly half of the money, $62 million, was used for media placements related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cossette Media was listed as one of the main beneficiaries of government advertising spending in an Inquiry of Ministry that was tabled in the House of Commons last year. The document said the Public Health Agency of Canada paid the company more than $2.5 million for ArriveCan app promotion between 2020 and 2022.

An order paper filed in December said the federal government had also spent more than $680,000 on social media “influencers” as part of a campaign to “help people in Canada make an informed decision about COVID-19 vaccines.”