Mr. Speaker, in 2016, the Government of Canada established a mandatory non-partisan external review process as part of a commitment to strengthen the oversight of government advertising. Ad Standards, the independent, not-for-profit, self-regulatory body that administers the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards was contracted to undertake this work.
At that time, advertising campaigns with budgets over $500,000 were subject to the process. In April 2020, the threshold for a mandatory review was reduced to $250,000. Departments may also submit campaigns that fall below the threshold for review.
All information on the advertising oversight mechanism, including the criteria used to evaluate advertising creatives and the two-stage review process, is publicly available on the Advertising oversight mechanism page: https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/government-communications/advertising-oversight-mechanism.html.
All results of the reviews by Ad Standards are posted on the Review results and decisions page: https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/government-communications/advertising-oversight-mechanism/review-results-decisions.html
The results are broken down by fiscal year, department, campaign name and details on modifications made following an initial review. As outlined on the Review results and decisions page, all flagged issues must be addressed, and the modified ad creatives must pass a final review from Ad Standards before being published or aired.
In addition to the non-partisan external review process, a complaints mechanism was established in 2020 to allow the public to flag any Government of Canada advertising that they perceive to be partisan. TBS is responsible for reviewing and reporting details of the complaints publicly on Canada.ca here: https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/government-communications/advertising-oversight-mechanism/submitting-complaint-about-partisanship-in-gc-advertising.html
To date, TBS has reviewed a total of five complaints. The advertisements in question were deemed to meet the review criteria and no action was required.