The Trudeau government is facing criticism for spending millions of taxpayer dollars on podcast productions across federal departments, according to recently obtained records. These taxpayer-funded podcasts, labeled by critics as “make-work projects for bureaucrats,” have sparked public debate about government spending, particularly in light of Canada’s mounting national debt.Access-to-information records acquired by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) reveal substantial costs associated with producing podcasts in various federal departments, including expenses for full-time staff dedicated to content creation. “Canadians need the government delivering passports, not podcasts,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “This isn’t providing taxpayers value for money.”Statistics Canada’s The Eh Sayers podcast, for example, has covered topics like gender identity, climate change, and misinformation across 21 episodes since January 2021. Despite costing nearly $1 million — roughly $4,241 per subscriber — the podcast has gathered only 229 subscribers and averages around 1,414 downloads per episode.Another high-cost production, the CCI and CHIN: In Our Words podcast from Canadian Heritage, aimed to preserve department history through staff interviews. The seven-episode series, produced from 2019 to 2021, cost approximately $155,736, or more than $22,000 per episode.Departments have produced additional podcasts with comparable expenses, including The First Sixteen from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Healthy Canadians from the Public Health Agency of Canada, which employs four full-time staff members for the podcast. The pandemic-era Business Unusual podcast, produced by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, involved a team of 13 employees, including two deputy ministers and two executives.Overall podcast costs across federal departments have reached at least $1.7 million, according to records released in response to an order paper question from Conservative MP Rob Moore. However, this figure does not include most salary expenses, which typically represent the largest portion of the cost.“With massive deficits and soaring debt, these taxpayer-funded podcasts should be the first thing on the chopping block,” said Terrazzano. The CTF argues that taxpayer funds would be better spent on essential services, especially as the national debt continues to rise.
