The Canadian Taxpayers Federation presented its 26th annual Teddy Waste Awards, where several British Columbia politicians and projects received nominations for their wasteful spending. 

In the federal government waste category, Vancouver Centre MP Hedy Fry was nominated for billing taxpayers almost $600,000 for luxury hotel rooms that sat empty because half the delegates didn’t show up or stay there. 

“At least when Trudeau blew $6,000 per night on a hotel room in London, he actually stayed in it,” said Carson Binda, CTF B.C. Director. “Fry spent $600,000 on hotel rooms, but she apparently forgot to check the RSVPs because hundreds of people weren’t coming. And hundreds more picked less expensive hotels.”

The CTF also nominated Parks Canada for spending $10,000 per deer it culled on Sidney Island. The bills spiraled when Parks Canada paid American and New Zealand sharpshooters to circle the island in a helicopter and kill 84 deer over the course of 10 days. Many of the deer they killed were the wrong kind of deer. Parks Canada managed to spend $800,000 on the deer cull, or $10,000 per deer. 

“The craziest part of this story is that local hunters harvested dozens of deer at no cost to taxpayers, but Parks Canada decided to spend close to a million dollars bringing in foreign sharpshooters to hunt from a helicopter,” said Binda.

In the provincial government waste category, the B.C. government received a nomination for spending more than $150 million VIP suites, a VIP stadium entrance and a walkway to the casino, all for wealthy soccer fans to watch a handful of World Cup matches.

“How about this: if FIFA needs a VIP entrance to get to VIP suites for World Cup matches, maybe FIFA should pay for it or find sponsors to cover the bills,” said Binda. 

This year’s Teddy Waste Award winners include:

• Municipal Teddy winner: The city of Regina 

• Provincial Teddy winner: Alberta Foundation for the Arts 

• Federal Teddy winner: CBC President Catherine Tait

• Lifetime Teddy winner: The Mission Cultural Fund

You can find a backgrounder on all the Teddy award winners and nominees HERE.

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