Ottawa's advertising budget ballooned to a record $130-million last year, according to previously unreleased figures that show a 64-per-cent increase in the government's marketing bill in a time of unprecedented deficits.

The advertising budget for 2009-2010 is a large increase of $50.5-million over the previous year's budget of $79.5-million. In addition, the latest tally is more than three times higher than the advertising budget of $41.3-million in 2005-2006, when the Harper government took office.

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