Global Affairs Canada spent $527,000 on artwork in the final weeks of its 2023 and 2024 fiscal years, including a $9,900 set of "Lego blocks," according to access-to-information records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The purchases were part of a year-end spending spree known as “March Madness,” where government departments rush to use up remaining budget funds before the fiscal year ends on March 31.
“If you want proof that government bureaucrats have way too many tax dollars on their hands, look no further than Global Affairs Canada’s half-a-million dollar March Madness art spending spree,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director.
“It’s supremely disrespectful to taxpayers to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on art they’ll never see in far-flung embassies.”
On March 31, 2023, Global Affairs purchased 32 pieces of artwork for $160,000, including a $25,000 archival pigment print, a $20,000 fabric piece made of poly-cotton and canvas, and a $3,500 artwork featuring cowhide, fox fur, Swarovski crystals, and 24K gold.
Additional purchases included a $6,000 oil painting and an $8,500 fabric piece made of moose hide, cross fox fur, and seed beads.
The following year, on February 9, 2024, Global Affairs spent $291,000 on 71 pieces of artwork in a single day, including 31 paintings costing a combined $153,000.
One bureaucrat expensed a $9,900 set of “Lego blocks,” categorized in records as "mixed media." Another round of spending on March 26, 2024, saw $50,000 more in artwork purchases, including a $9,000 wool and cotton fabric piece and a $7,500 woven paper artwork.
In total, Global Affairs' art spending over two years could have covered a full year of groceries for 31 Canadian families of four.
March Madness spending sprees have long been criticized in Ottawa, with government departments known to rapidly exhaust their budgets before the end of the fiscal year.
“Every March, taxpayers are forced to watch a bad episode of bureaucrats gone wild,” said Terrazzano. “Taxpayers need the government to fully open up the books, go line by line through each department’s spending and take a chainsaw to all this waste.”
This isn't the first time Global Affairs’ spending has come under scrutiny. Records show the department spent over $3.3 million on alcohol between January 2019 and May 2024, averaging $51,000 per month on beer, wine, and spirits.
Other controversial expenditures include an $8,800 sex toy show in Germany, $1,700 for a “Lesbian Pirates!” musical, and $12,500 for international senior citizens to discuss their sex lives.
“From sex toy shows to lesbian pirate musicals to a $9,900 Lego set, Global Affairs Canada may be the worst waste offender in the entire federal government,” said Terrazzano.
“And that’s saying a lot.”
