The Canadian Taxpayers Federation held its award ceremony for the worst use of public funds in 2024, with former prime minister Justin Trudeau receiving the lifetime achievement for a “decade of federal waste.”
The CTF presented its 27th annual Teddy Waste Awards on Wednesday, which are doled out at the various levels of government.
The award, a golden pig-shaped trophy, gets its name from Ted Weatherill, a former federal appointee who was fired in 1999 for leaving taxpayers with a host of dubious expense claims, including a $700 lunch for two in France.
Trudeau received the Lifetime Achievement Teddy Waste Award for his contribution to doubling the federal debt in less than a decade and his penchant for hotel suites and fine dining.
“Trudeau added 99,000 extra bureaucrats, billed taxpayers $6,000 per night for a hotel suite in England and spent six figures on airplane food after the government promised to cut those costs,” said CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano.
Global Affairs Canada was named the federal Teddy winner for spending an average of $51,000 per month on booze, $8,800 on a sex toy show in Germany, and $1,700 on a musical featuring lesbian pirates.
“Bureaucrats at Global Affairs Canada are winning a Teddy Award because they are wasting money on booze faster than taxpayers can say bottoms up,” said Terrazzano.
New Brunswick won the Provincial Teddy Award for spending $77,000 on an eight-day trip to Europe, attempting to boost European tourism in the province. Their campaign ads also included incorrect information about the province.
“New Brunswick spent tens of thousands of dollars to get Europeans to visit the province, but the tourism ads were full of errors because the writers clearly didn’t know much about New Brunswick,” Terrazzano said.
The City of Calgary took home the Municipal Teddy Award for spending $65,000 so people could call a hotline that played sound recordings of the Bow River, which failed to work.
“The city of Calgary won a Teddy Waste Award for spending $65,000 so people can telephone the Bow River and hear what wasting tax dollars sounds like,” said Terrazzano.
The Teddy Awards ceremony was held in Calgary and featured the CTF’s mascot, a pink pig named Porky the Waste Hater, who was dressed in a tuxedo for the occasion.