Houston government pulls 'partisan' ads against carbon tax at request of election watchdog

The province pulled ads attacking the federal carbon tax last week, following a request from Elections Nova Scotia.

The radio and online campaign started June 26 and was due to end July 16. But the Houston government agreed to halt the campaign three days early after the election watchdog, acting on a complaint from the Nova Scotia Liberal Party, expressed concern about interference with the byelection in Preston scheduled for Aug. 8.

Premier Tim Houston called the byelection on July 7, 12 days into the ad campaign.

The ads said the federal Liberal government was to blame for a jump in the price of gasoline of $0.17 a litre when the carbon tax kicked in July 1.

Ottawa has said that Nova Scotians will be entitled to a rebate every three months of $248 for a family of four or $124 for an individual to help offset the cost to the consumer.

Churchill wants taxpayers reimbursed

The leaders of both provincial opposition parties have called the ads partisan.

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill said now that Elections Nova Scotia has endorsed that idea, the PC Party of Nova Scotia should pick up the tab for the $56,000 campaign.

"This is wrong by no matter which way you look at it, and at the very least they should be reimbursing taxpayers for this misuse of spending," said Churchill. "It's one thing to fund partisan ads with your party's money, it's another thing to use the public's money."

Lindsay Rodenkirchen, Elections Nova Scotia's assistant chief electoral officer, noted in a letter to Mitchell Gallant, interim executive director of the provincial Liberal Party, that Communication Nova Scotia has "guidelines and protocols"  about advertising government business around elections or byelections.

"Upon reviewing Communications Nova Scotia's guidelines, we made the request to Communications Nova Scotia staff to pull the remaining social media ads due to the partisan nature of the advertisements," Rodenkirchen wrote.

'It's a bit of an overreach,' minister says

The provincial cabinet minister responsible for the communications arm of government rejected the claim that the ads were partisan.

"The campaigns didn't reference the name of the federal party," said Brian Comer. "That would have been partisan." 

"I feel it's a bit of an overreach but in the end, we did take the recommendations of Elections Nova Scotia to stop the campaign early, and that's that."

According to government policy, government communications and advertising are prohibited across the province during an election "and in the case of a by-election within the by-election district."

Exemptions include: public notices required by law:

• in cases of danger to health, safety or the environment;
• tender notices for work announced before the election was called;
• public information concerning programs funded and announced on a regular basis;
• in recognition of a holiday or significant or cultural event.