Mr. Chair, through you to the minister, what the Canadian Press clearly states is that this was after the ads were already launched in the spring. For the record I think that's important to mention.
This represents about a 7,000% increase from the ministry expenditures in 2010-11 on advertising.
My next question is very simply this. We've had President Obama say very clearly that Canada is not playing a role on climate change, is not being responsible when it comes to the environment. We had the Europeans saying the same thing. In a sense, this government has become the poster boy for irresponsible action. Canada of course finished 58th out of 61 countries this year in terms of putting in place the policies to combat climate change. So the reality is that this government has failed mightily in convincing Americans and Europeans that the government actually understands the importance of environmental action and action on climate change.
Why are you spending all of these tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money that could be funded through the most profitable industry in North America, the oil industry? It could be paying for those ads itself. Why are you using taxpayers' money rather than addressing the key issues that our allies and partners around the world are raising, condemning this government for its lack of action on the environment and climate change?