Life in Alberta today: It’s bitterly cold, below 30 degrees with the wind chill. You start your car and turn the radio on. You hear an advertisement from the Alberta government telling you it’s great that gasoline and home heating will become more expensive on January 1st.

If it wasn’t bad enough that you are paying those higher costs, you also are paying for the ad to remind you of those higher costs.

Alberta's NDP government is spending another $4.5 million tax dollars on radio, television and online advertisements promoting its carbon tax and regulation-heavy climate plan, on top of the $4.4 million they spent on carbon tax ads earlier this year. That brings the grand total to nearly $9 million.

This ad campaign is costing taxpayers $4 million more than the previous Progressive Conservative government shamefully spent on the 2013 and 2014 budgets, and Building Alberta campaign combined. 

This spending is completely unjustifiable.

The NDP should agree. When Premier Alison Redford spent over $1 million on Building Alberta road signs promoting her own work, then-Alberta NDP Leader (and current NDP minister) Brian Mason said, “we deplore the waste of public money advertising Alison Redford.”

Premier Rachel Notley says the ad campaign spending is "absolutely" justified, and necessary to help Albertans understand the climate plan.

But if you watch the ads, you'll notice the government still has some explaining to do.

The ad only refers to the carbon "price" once, with no mention of the money coming out of Albertans' pockets.

It claims two-thirds of Albertans will benefit from carbon levy rebates, not mentioning that those rebates don't cover the increased tax burdens in other areas to pay for the carbon tax hit to municipalities, schools and hospitals. It doesn't state that low-income folks in rural areas will almost definitely pay more than they'll ever see back in rebates.

The ad says that Albertans will benefit from energy efficiency grants. It doesn't mention that Albertans will pay more to heat their homes in winter, or that estimates show Albertans will be forced to pay billions of dollars to close coal power plants early. 

It says the government will diversify the economy with more renewable energy. It doesn't explain that taxpayers will send hefty corporate welfare cheques to both big oil companies and green energy companies, or that doing the latter in Ontario contributed to skyrocketing electricity prices. Previous Alberta governments wasted billions on “diversification” corporate welfare too.

The small business tax cut is said to be creating "more jobs," but not mentioned is that Alberta's unemployment rate is at its highest in more than 22 years. Small businesses are shutting their doors, and those still afloat are grappling with an increased minimum wage, payroll taxes, income taxes and the heavy weight of the carbon tax. Ninety-four per cent of Alberta small businesses are not confident in the NDP plan.

The ad says that the carbon tax is made in Alberta, not Ottawa. But it makes no note of the fact that provinces that pushed back against the federal climate policy diktat, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia, received exemptions from the federal government's 2030 coal power plant shutdown deadline.

Premier Notley says wasting $9 million on these carbon tax ads was necessary because the carbon tax is an "ambitious" policy. The reality is that it's because the carbon tax is an unpopular policy that nearly 70 per cent of Albertans oppose.

Like the NDP said, it was wrong when Alison Redford spent precious tax dollars on partisan ads. It was wrong when Stephen Harper did it. It's wrong now. 

If the NDP government wants to spend money marketing its carbon tax, that money should come out of the NDP party coffers, not out of taxpayers' pockets.