Good morning. My name is Jean-Michel Catta and I am the General Director of the Consultations and Communications Branch at the Department of Finance.
To answer your question, there are two components to the government's advertising policy. Firstly, at the beginning of the fiscal year, the Privy Council allocates advertising budgets to the departments, having decided which particular program the government wishes to promote this year. The funds are then allocated to the departments so that they can run these advertising programs.
That's precisely what happened in the case of the Department of Finance. Treasury Board allocated funds to the department for these two advertising programs.