Oh dear Canada!

Nobody likes the thought of settling up with the tax man but it makes it particularly hard to swallow when you hear just how poorly some of our hard earned tax dollars are spent...

Thanks to the the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) and its annual initiative that culminates in what they call the “Teddy Waste Awards” we get a little glimpse into just how ridiculous some of the spending is.

The CTF’s signature waste award – called the Teddy – is named after Ted Weatherill, a former federal government employee who was dismissed in 1999 for his outrageous expenses. Each year since then the CTF hosts the Teddy awards to recognize the governments, public office holders, government employees, departments or agencies that most exemplify government waste. And let me tell you, there IS waste...

Making the list this year?

• Government pensions... Not surprising but did you know that former Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe, who stepped down as party head last year, still receives a six-figure salary in the amount of $140,765 every year for life?

• French-language rights... As if this topic isn’t controversial enough in Canada, the CTF points out yet another reason why it puts taxpayers over the edge... Among the Teddy award recipients, the CTF awarded Yukon Supreme Court Justice Vital Oullette, who ordered the building of a $15 million school for just 41 French-speaking students in Whitehorse last year. Under the proposal for the school there will be about one teacher for every 10 students...

• How about that escalator? Two hundred thousand taxpayer dollars went towards the building of a nine-step escalator inside a bus terminal in downtown Montreal. Perhaps not a bad expense... if it didn’t lead straight into a solid wall...

• And, taking the cake, there is the Federal Teddy Winner: Agriculture Canada’s Tobacco Transition Program – a program set up to pay farmers to get OUT of the tobacco business. Instead it wound up costing taxpayers $284 million and DOUBLED the number of tobacco farmers... Hmmm...

Highways, healthcare, education and the like – we know we have to invest in our country if we want to enjoy a quality lifestyle and the freedom we have in Canada, but seriously, we may all be a little less begrudging if it weren’t for stories like this.