$173K spent to trumpet PST cut a waste of taxpayers' money, Liberals argue

The Manitoba Liberals are accusing BrianPallister's government of going against its word by using tax dollars to promote aPST cut.

During the 2016 Manitoba election campaign, the Progressive Conservatives promised toeliminate all public spending on partisan advertising.

The party also said it wouldempower theauditor generalto review all advertising and dismiss any promotional materials found to be in violation of the rules.

Liberal Leader Dougald Lamontsaid the government is breaking its promise by advertising an upcomingreduction of the provincial sales tax to seven per cent.

"There's no public service element to this," Lamont said. "It's not telling people to go get vaccinated. It's not telling people about a new program they can take advantage of. It's really just spending public money to promote the party in power."

Spend ad money on fighting meth: Lamont

The province says the ad campaignfeatured onbillboards, print, radio and social mediawill cost$173,000. The billboards will be up for about four weeks, but the campaign will be shorter in other media, the province said.

Lamontargued thoseadvertising dollars would be better spent on discouraging people from using methamphetamine. He asked for thatwhen the government launched an education campaign last year aboutcannabis.

"We haven't seen anything like that at all, but they are breaking their own promise and spending how much money on billboards, on radio ads that frankly in my opinion, they should be paid for by the PC Party," he said.

"They shouldn't be paid for by government."

The auditor general so far does not have the authority to halt government advertisements.

In a statement, the provincesaid it is spending considerably lessthan the former NDP government did on promoting budget initiatives. The NDPcommitted $302,000 to hyping its budget initiatives in 2015, the government said.

"We think it's important to inform Manitobans the provincial government is keeping its promises and taking action to make life more affordable by reducing the PST to seven per centon July 1," the province'semail statement said, in response to a question aboutwhy it was engagingin what could be seen aspartisan advertising.

"Reducing the PST to seven per cent is an action of government that may impact the purchasing decisions of Manitobans."

In 2015, Pallister called for an independent review of all government advertising. He arguedthe NDP's"Steady Growth, Good Jobs" campaign was solely promotion for the governing party, sinceit contained no details about the constructionit was touting.

That campaign costnearly $1 million, The Canadian Press reported.

Lamont believes the Pallister government's advertising is tiedto the possibility of an early election, which he previously speculated could happen as early as this spring.