Metrolinx paid about $30,000 for Instagram “influencers” to promote provincial transit projects in a controversial ad campaign last year, the Star has learned. The public agency, which oversees transit in the GTHA, has refused to reveal how much taxpayer money it spent on the ads, but the figure was included in internal Metrolinx emails the Star obtained through a freedom of information request. “Please, do not release the costs,” Verster wrote in a Nov. 24, 2019 email to Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney’s office. The Metrolinx campaign included posts like one from Marlie Cohen, a fitness and “realness” blogger whose @kale_and_krunches Instagram account has more than 44,000 followers. On Nov. 26, four days after the CBC’s initial inquiry, Metrolinx and government staffers were still discussing how to handle questions about the campaign costs.

Source: thestar April 09, 2020 20:37 UTC