The Premier isn't backing down from proposed changes to the government’s advertising law, saying they will clarify the legislation, and even strengthen it.

“The legislation we brought in is important legislation, but it needs to do what it was intended to do,” said Premier Kathleen Wynne on Thursday. “And it needs to have a scope that is a distinction between partisan and non-partisan, and so that’s the change that we’ve made.”

The Liberal government packaged several changes to the Government Advertising Act within its budget bill, such as removing language around fostering a "positive impression of the governing party" or promoting "the partisan political interests of the governing party.” Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk, whose office reviews government advertising, has warned the changes will turn her office into a “rubber stamp.”

It was the government of former premier Dalton McGuinty that set up the ad-review system in the first place. Moreover, Ontario’s system for approving government ads has been cited as a success by federal Liberals angry with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government advertising.

Taking questions after a Q&A at a Bloomberg economic summit in Toronto, Wynne said her Liberal government’s changes to the advertising law would actually strengthen the AG’s oversight.

“On the one hand, we want to strengthen it so that the purview of the Auditor General would be increased to the digital realm, because that was not the scope in the first legislation,” said Wynne. “And secondly we want to clarify the legislation so that it does what it was intended to do. It was intended to remove partisan advertising from the scope of what government could pay for, and that’s exactly what the legislation will do.”

The Auditor General was at Queen’s Park on Thursday, appearing as a delegation before the finance committee as it hears testimony on the budget bill. Afterwards, Lysyk said the proposed changes to the advertising law put her office “in a very bad position of potentially having to approve an ad” that would comply with the new rules but that someone could consider to be partisan. She has warned in the past that if the changes go through, she will recommend her office no longer review government ads, and that the responsibility be turned over to a ministry.

“I think (the existing legislation) has prevented partisan advertising in Ontario,” said Lysyk. “I don’t think the changes are enhancing anything, I think they’re weakening the Act.”

But Wynne says that she doesn’t support partisan advertising and that it isn’t what governments should be doing.

Wynne brought up her trip to Washington and her visit to the White House, where she met with Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama. Wynne said they discussed sexual assault and violence and public education campaigns against it, including the ad the Ontario government is running. The Liberal government plans to expand its efforts into the province’s cultural and LGBTQ communities.

During her meeting with Jarrett, Wynne said she was shown an ad with Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden making statements about safety for women on campuses that was paid for by government in partnership with private entities.

“That ad would not be allowed under our legislation,” Wynne claimed. “I would not be allowed to speak about that issue as a government-paid ad, and that’s the intention. The intention of the advertising act is to clarify that partisan advertising that promotes me or promotes my government is not what government should be paying for.”

Wynne praises proposed changes to government advertising law as the right move

Read this for free.