The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has a huge problem with the way Premier Doug Ford is handling his year end interviews.
The premier has rejected requests from traditional Queen's Park media but is doing an interview with Ontario News Now.
That's the fully-funded Progressive Conservative outlet that acts as a party political promotion operation.
The CTF says it's more than just the exclusion of traditional media, it's that ONN is taxpayer funded advertising for the party.
Ontario Director Christine Van Geyn says ONN is fake news.
"He has his own pseudo news network called Ontario News Now that is essentially taxpayer funded government propaganda where he can call up Ontario News Now and say I want to do a story about this and they come and do it. And that's not how real media works"
Van Geyn says other government departments must be open and accountable.
"You can't use taxpayer money for partisan purposes, you need to disclose the answer to questions that we may have about this program. But Ontario News Now is funded through the legislature so it's not subject to freedom of information, it's not subject to the same restrictions on how taxpayer money is used"
She says it's worrisome people may be fooled by ONN.
"Most astute viewers who would look at that would say this isn't news, this is advertising. But not everyone is always astute and sometimes in the hustle and bustle of life people who are not otherwise paying attention might be tricked into thinking this is a legitimate news broadcast and we take issue with that and we take issue with the fact that it's taxpayer funded"
Van Geyn says the best estimate they have of the costs is that the PC and NDP received $13.7-million in combined funding for caucus services.
ONN is funded through that fund, but the breakdown of how the money is distributed remains opaque.