NEWS RELEASE: Four years, $10,000, one frog: Inside Parks Canada’s costly frog cull

Vancouver, BC: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on Parks Canada to get its spending under control in light of documents showing the department spent four years and more than $10,000 to capture bullfrogs on a British Columbia island. 

“Kids catch frogs for free, but Parks Canada managed to spend several years and thousands of tax dollars before it even managed to catch one frog,” said Carson Binda, B.C. Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “Did Parks Canada put Wile E. Coyote in charge of this operation?”

Between 2018-19 and 2022-23, Parks Canada launched a series of unsuccessful culls of the American bullfrog at the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, according to access-to-information records obtained by the CTF. 

In 2018-19, Parks Canada spent $1,920 attempting to cull the American bullfrog, but did not manage to kill a single frog. 

The following year, Parks Canada spent $2,000 and again struck out. 

The cull took a temporary hiatus in 2020-21, according to the records. 

In 2021-22, Parks Canada spent another $2,207 on the cull, but once again failed to kill any bullfrogs. 

Finally, in 2022-23, after years of failure, Parks Canada spent $3,882 and managed to kill one frog. 

Between the years of 2018-19 and 2022-23, Parks Canada spent $10,009 on these frog hunts and only captured one American bullfrog in the process. 

In 2023-24, Parks Canada’s annual bullfrog hunt at the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve finally hit the jackpot, killing 100 bullfrogs at a price tag of $5,079. 

The frogs killed by Parks Canada so far have come at a hit to taxpayers of $149 a head. 

“The frogs appear to be slipping through the fingers of Parks Canada bureaucrats just as fast as our hard-earned tax dollars are,” Binda said. “Parks Canada keeps proving it’s horrible at hunting, but great at wasting taxpayer-money.” 

The American bullfrog is the largest species of frog in North America. It was “introduced” to B.C., according to the Canadian Encyclopaedia.