There was the notorious $57,000 fake lake in Toronto’s G20 media centre, Ottawa’s controversial decision to spend $16 billion on 65 stealth fighter jets and the $19.8 million the government paid consultants to recommend ways to cut federal spending.
In short, the past few years have been rough on taxpayers’ wallets.
But Maclean’s Magazine’s latest cover, 99 stupid things the government did with your money, identifies dozens more silly ways the municipal, provincial and federal officials used Canadians’ money.
For example, through a federal program, a Sydney, N.S., concert promoter received $180,000 in loans and grants to bring Snoop Dogg to the East Coast city to perform in 2010. The City of Montreal spent $450,000 for a temporary stadium when U2 dropped by – their shows made them $740 million worldwide, Maclean’s reported.
The bustling Montreal city loves its U2, but it also appreciates some espionage: it spent $537,000 spying on its employees.
Gregory Thomas, federal and Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, called the list “upsetting.”
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“It’s disgusting when you look at the struggle a lot of families have to make ends meet. And you look at the amount of tax people have to pay on top of property taxes, income taxes and payroll taxes. Then you look at the list of 99 different things where millions of dollars have been thrown down the drain,” he said. The national non-profit group promotes lower taxes, less waste and more accountability.
The Tory government spent $26 million on advertising its Economic Action Plan stimulus program in the months leading up to last year’s spring election. That’s a lot of money for a government touting fiscal responsibility, Thomas noted.
Maclean’s worked with watchdog groups, including Thomas’ organization, and sifted through press releases, auditor generals’ reports and news reports to compile their list, the magazine’s website noted.
In July, Ottawa doled out $190,000 into Mrs. Dunster’s, a New Brunswick-based doughnut maker notable for making doughnuts out of pure lard. The province, on the other hand, put their resources into anti-obesity initiatives, Maclean’s reported.
About $700,000 was invested in two start-up cheese companies.
The Royal Canadian mint racked up a $7.3-million bill to make 486 million new pennies, which means each penny cost 1.5 cents each.
The government came under attack again for paying consultants $19.8 million or $90,000 a day to suggest ways to trim budgets.
“Here’s betting ‘overpriced outside advice’ doesn’t end up on their list of recommended cuts,” the cover story quipped.
Maclean’s also pointed to Canada Revenue Agency, which had a busy year spending $750,000 on an ad campaign warning the public about “under the table home renovations.” Another $113,000 was poured into hiring a polling firm to learn that, well, the ads weren’t very effective.
Carl Vallee, press secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, said the government is working on reducing wasteful and inefficient spending.
“Reckless spending and out of control debt are the key problems facing other countries today. We will make sure Canada continues to stay free of these problems,” he said in an email to Globalnews.ca.
Thomas said Canadians should consider why this money is being handed out in some cases.
“The politicians were under pressure from different groups to spend this money and taxpayers need to honour and support and vote for politicians who say no,” he said.
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