CALGARY — The 28th annual Teddy Waste awards have been chosen by the Canadian Taxpayer Federation (CTF), and the worst bureaucratic waste of Canadian taxpayer money — and will now be revealed to you...The award for the worst municipal government waste award goes to...The City of Toronto — for spending $2,000 on a plaque to commemorate a dead raccoon named Conrad.The mischievous little critter died more than 10 years ago — back in 2015 — and was found on the sidewalk, where during the 14 hours the city took to pick up the animal, people built a memorial for the raccoon. "It took the city 14 hours to remove Conrad, and the city of Toronto went nuts," commented Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director for the CTF."People left flowers, they left candles, and a hashtag even went viral on social media."."Fast forward 10 years later, and Toronto bureaucrats wasted taxpayers' money buying a plaque to commemorate a dead raccoon."One honorable mention for worst municipal waste was the City of Calgary — for spending $4.8 million on consultation for their new city brand — Blue Sky City."Calgary bureaucrats, didn't need to spend millions of dollars on that. All they had to do was look up to the sky, and that's free," quipped Terrazzano..Moving on to the Canadian province's highest spender, CTF gave the Teddy award to...BC's Premier, good ol'David Eby, for spending loads of taxpayer funds on ineffective soccer balls.In light of Vancouver hosting the FIFA World Cup, Eby "spent $350,000 on three soccer balls that aren't round and that you can't kick because they're made of wood leather.".Now for the big guns, or the bigger government — the winner of the federal government Teddy Waste award goes to...The Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA), "The Auditor General found that when you call the CRA, they answer the phone 32% of the time, but it's actually worse if you do get someone from the CRA on the phone, because the CRA gives out the wrong tax answers to individual tax questions 83% of the time.""We actually invited the CRA to come and accept the award today. We gave them a call, but it went straight to voicemail," Terrazzano joked..Last but certainly not least, the lifetime achievement award for waste, which has been given out in the past to a range of recipients, from "Bombardier to Bevoda, and even Justin Trudeau."In the winner is...The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), which has been given $1 billion by the feds, and "pays for research the government claims matters most to Canadians.""The SSHRC spent $100,000 studying the birth, life, and death of a grocery cart," said Terrazzano. ."It spent $17,000 on a study about 'casual sex' among young adults living in Jasper.""It also spent $20,000 studying the gender politics of Peruvian rock music, $17,000 on a study about disgraced former rodeo princesses, and $94,000 on a study titled The Rhetoric of the Selfie," stated Terrazzano.Another provincial nominee that didn't make the cut this year, was Quebec, which came close to winning for their $190,000 in spending for a website that publicized the price of gas."What else shows the price of gas? The big sign in front of every gas station."."Quebec built this website as a way to help drivers shop around and try to save a little bit of gas money, but the problem with that is Quebec is the only province still charging a consumer carbon tax.""So, here's a better way for Quebec to actually save drivers money: scrap your carbon tax," stated Terrazzano.Another honorable mention nominee, Federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne."The federal finance minister spent $12,000 contracting out speech writing for his own budget speech, and not only that, the finance department has about 23 separate communications employees."."They even have an actual speechwriter on staff, whose job it is to write speeches, yet they still spent 12 grand on an outside consultant to write the budget speech, and to add insult to injury, the budget said the government was cutting consultants.""So, the finance minister spent 12 grand getting a consultant to tell people that the government is cutting consultants," Terrazzano stated.
