OTTAWA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is applauding the cancellation of the wasteful Mission Cultural Fund, the slush fund at Global Affairs that spent taxpayers’ money on a sex toy show in Germany and a photography exhibit for a rock star.

“This is a big win for taxpayers and it’s long overdue,” said Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director of the CTF. “Paying for a sex toy show in Germany and flying chefs around the world was a huge waste of taxpayers’ money and Global Affairs should have shut this down years ago.”

The federal government quietly issued a statement saying the Mission Cultural Fund “expired on March 31, 2023.”

The Mission Cultural Fund was created in 2016, as a $1.75-million-a-year fund “designed to promote our artists abroad while advancing foreign policy priorities.” 

The fund has been consistently overbudget. While the fund was given a budget of $1.75 million annually, its actual average annual spending has been nearly $3.8 million.

The Mission Cultural Fund spent taxpayers’ money on events such as: 

• $8,813.70 on a sex toy art show in Germany.
• $12,520 for senior citizens around the world to share their sex stories.
• $17,000 to fly a chef from Canada to India to cook Indian food during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s $1.6 million 10-day trip in 2018.
• $51,145 on a red-carpet photography exhibition for Canadian rock star Bryan Adams.
• Nearly $10,000 to help author Margaret Atwood promote a new book in Australia.

“The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has been sounding the alarm about this wasteful spending using the Mission Cultural Fund for years and we will be watching them like hawks to make sure the bureaucrats at Global Affairs don’t ferret this money into a new slush fund,” Terrazzano said.