Being the nosey, anti-corporate welfare sticklers that we are at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, we filed a Freedom of Information request for the costs of a flashy press conference held on February 11th by Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson and Daryl Katz.
Here’s what we found:
The props purchased or rented for the press conference cost about $9,000, half of which were paid for by City of Edmonton taxpayers. This included, incredibly, a chunk of fake hockey boards.
Despite the City owning dozens of indoor and outdoor rinks, and surely having many pieces of real hockey boards laying around in storage yards and the back corners of community rinks, the city paid half of the $1,500 bill to rent fake hockey boards.
Surely coincidentally, the email from city staff downplaying the $9,000 bill for a single press conference, came an hour after the CTF tweeted that we were curious who was paying the bill. Nothing like ensuring your email will be in the FOIP files.
The Freedom of Information request can be found here: http://taxpayer.com/media/Edmonton%20Arena%20Announcement%20Costs%20FOIP.pdf
Is Canada Off Track?
Canada has problems. You see them at gas station. You see them at the grocery store. You see them on your taxes.
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