In case you missed all the advertising during the Stanley Cup playoffs promoting the Canada Jobs Grant, don't worry. You can't apply for the Canada Jobs Grant. The program doesn't exist yet. In fact, it may never exist, because the plan announced in last year's budget involved Ottawa, the provinces, and businesses working together to train Canadians for jobs. Great idea, except the provinces haven't signed on, the financing isn't worked out, and there's no money yet.

So you can't apply. Don't go searching online for the application form. It isn't there.

But the federal government went ahead and blew a fortune on advertising anyway. Since 2009 they've spent $113 million promoting their Economic Action Plan, a plan, as far as we can tell, to grow the economy by borrowing money and buying television advertising.

The government's own polls show fewer and fewer Canadians paying attention to the ads: the latest ones exhort Canadians to phone a toll-free number for more information. Nobody called the number.

Ontario NDP MP Glenn Thibeault uncovered the $9 million tab for the latest round of spending, this time a new campaign slamming wireless phone companies.

There's something a little bit sick about companies and the people who work for them, sending their taxes into the Canada Revenue Agency so that a bunch of political hacks in Ottawa can spend millions buying TV advertising to tell Canadians how terrible they are.

This kind of thing wouldn't be right if the government were using taxpayer dollars to attack a union or a religious group, and it's not o.k. that they're using tax money to go after Canadian businesses.

In the province of Ontario, they're wasting far less money on government advertising, because it needs to be approved by the independent Auditor General before it goes on the air. There is a tough set of rules covering what can and can't be advertised with taxpayer dollars. Ontario Liberal MP David McGuinty tabled a private member's bill in November, proposing a similar arrangement for Ottawa. It's a good idea.