The Golden Pig Awards for Canadian politicians who waste your money in dumb ways

[Herman]

North Bay, Ontario's maypor deserves honourable mention.

[DKG]

According to its latest annual report, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation(CTF) not only did the governor general's office spend $36 million in 2023-24, the position receives a $378,000 salary, a taxpayer-funded clothing allowance, a lifetime pension of about $150,000 annually and a $200,000 annual expense account after leaving office.

The Leger poll found that 49% want to reduce the Governor General's budget, 19% would keep it the same, 13% want to increase it and 19% are unsure.

Among those with an opinion, nearly 60% of Canadians favour a reduction.

[Herman]

More of the same waste we had under Justine. Is this how you want your money spent?

[.]

More of the same waste we had under Justine. Is this how you want your money spent?

14.4 million buys a lot of baked beans for them to sniff each others farts.

[DKG]

14.4 million buys a lot of baked beans for them to sniff each others farts.

That's about the value it brings to Canadian taxpayers.

[Herman]

[Herman]

FinDev Canada, created by former prime minister Justin Trudeau in 2017, says in an internal memo it did no "due diligence" before investing millions into a money-losing cellphone company in Kenya, according to Blacklock's Reporter.

The federal agency, known more formally as the Development Finance Institute, admitted as much in the memo they withheld for six years under the Access to Information act.

Justine created FinDev Canada with a $300-million budget "to support private sector investment in developing countries."

The agency's first investment was buying US$10 million shares in M-Kopa Holdings Ltd. of Nairobi, a door-to-door sales company marketing cellphones and housewares.

Access To Information records, approval for the M-Kopa agreement came only weeks after being contacted by the company's CEO.

Since 2018, FinDev has bought additional M-Kopa shares for a total of $43.4 million.

Over the same period, M-Kopa reported $138.6 million in combined losses but FinDev wouldn't say how much taxpayers have lost.

[Herman]

Why are we paying to serve wine to ISIS brides?

[Herman]

That's a lot of money to waste without making a dent in the problem.\

[DKG]

About 40 per cent of my fellow Canadian Taxpayer Federation(CTF) supporters picked Global Affairs Canada for spending $51,000 per month on booze, $8,800 on a sex toy show in Germany and $12,000 on a show where seniors in other countries talked about their sex lives on stage.

A close second was Statistics Canada (39 per cent). It spent almost $1 million making a podcast, but it wasn't about statistics ... Those bureaucrats made podcasts about climate change, arts and crafts, misinformation and gender identity.

CTF supporters picked BC Rail for the provincial government waste award. BC rail sold its trains and railway decades ago, but it kept its executives around and pays them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The city of Calgary spent $65,000 so people could have a fake phone call with the Bow River. This is so dumb, I'm not surprised CTF supporters picked Calgary for the municipal government waste award.

[Herman]