Canadian taxpayers are footing the bill for studies into Justin Trudeau’s speeches, ancient Mesopotamian brewers, climate-change comics, Canadian dancefloors and low-carbon video games under a federal research program costing $1.4 billion this year.The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) highlighted the grants in an analysis of 2026 funding awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).“Studies about climate comics and the state of Canadian dancefloors don’t sound like studies that matter most to Canadians like the government claims,” said CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano.“A government that can find $30,987 for temple brewers in ancient Mesopotamia can find savings for Canadian taxpayers.”Federal Main Estimates show SSHRC is budgeted to cost taxpayers about $1.4 billion this year. The agency says it supports research and research training in the social sciences and humanities and that the work it funds provides “insights on the issues that matter most to Canadians.”Among this year’s recipients is Concordia University professor Antonia Hernández, who received $99,850 for a project titled A Liquid Frontier: Water Governance through Choral Storytelling.Hernández has previously conducted research into Chile’s water crisis that imagined water possessing constitutional rights and included plans for a manifesto and fictional treatise. Her co-applicant on the new project, Concordia theatre professor Mark Sussman, specializes in puppetry.Alberta-based professor Kara Stone received $37,275 for a project titled Greenhouse: Low-Carbon Game Jam.Stone previously built a solar-powered server on her apartment balcony to host what she describes as “low-carbon videogames.” The server can go offline during periods of insufficient sunlight.“Full access to every user is such a capitalist mindset,” Stone told The Guardian in 2023.SSHRC also awarded Ottawa professor Kyle Conway $43,693 to examine the “contested meaning” of speeches by former prime minister Justin Trudeau.Conway plans to analyze 326 Trudeau speeches and track the former Liberal prime minister’s use of terms including “feminist,” “reconciliation,” “protest” and “freedom.”.Other grants identified by the CTF include $78,623 to examine the “state of the dancefloor in Canada,” $79,999 for research into “nasal harmony in Amazonian languages” and $88,591 for a project studying Arctic climate comics.University of British Columbia professor Lisa Coulthard received $70,529 to study the “sounds of horror cinema.” According to UBC, Coulthard has previously received four other SSHRC grants.The CTF said at least 50 projects funded this year focus on topics involving other countries, with the grants collectively worth nearly $3.9 million.Those include $93,467 to create a digital edition of a 1908 book about Sri Lankan art, $65,833 to examine Western-style sweets in “modern Japan and beyond” and $30,987 to research “struggling temple brewers in sixth century BCE Mesopotamia.”“The SSHRC is little more than a subsidy for academics to work on their pet projects that nobody else will read,” Terrazzano said.“Just because nobody will voluntarily pay to study the birth, life and death of a grocery cart, that doesn’t mean taxpayers should be forced to.”SSHRC funding comes in addition to the roughly $18 billion Ottawa transfers annually to provinces through the Canada Social Transfer, which helps fund post-secondary education, social assistance and social services, early childhood development and childcare.Provincial governments also spend directly on post-secondary education. Alberta, for example, is budgeted to spend about $7 billion on advanced and post-secondary education this year.The CTF said SSHRC has funded similarly unconventional projects in previous years.Past grants include $105,000 to examine the “birth, life and death” of a grocery cart, $20,000 for a project titled Gender politics in Peruvian rock music and $17,500 for research into “casual sex among young adults living in Jasper.”
