Taxpayer watchdog doles out waste awards
Last Updated: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 | 4:58 PM CT
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Mailouts from MPs, exorbitant Nova Scotia MLA expenses and a Toronto homeless audit were all cited Wednesday at a tongue-in-cheek awards ceremony meant to highlight examples of questionable government spending.
Porky the Waste Hater, left, gives the thumbs up as Colin Craig and Natasha Sherdon look on during a press conference by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. which gave out its annual Teddies Government Waste Awards on Parliament Hill Wednesday. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)The Canadian Taxpayers Federation doled out its 12th annual "Teddy" awards in a mock presentation in Ottawa hosted by CTF Prairies director Colin Craig.
Craig said the awards show there is plenty of room for governments to cut back.
The group's federal award went to MP mailouts, dubbed "10-per-centers" because they can go to no more than 10 per cent of the households in a riding. That is in addition to the MP flyers that are allowed to go to all of the households in a riding.
Craig said the cost of the flyers has increased from $5.9 million in 2005-2006 to $10 million in 2008-2009.
The CTF gave its provincial "Teddy" to Nova Scotia MLAs for certain claims found in an audit of expenses between 2006 and 2009. Items claimed by MLAs included a generator, 3-D art and patio furniture.
Politician resigned
Yarmouth MLA Richard Hurlburt, a Progressive Conservative, resigned in February in the wake of the expenses scandal.
The taxpayer group handed its municipal waste award to the City of Toronto for a homeless audit. The CTF said the city paid people $100 each to pretend to be homeless and help with the audit.
Craig said real homeless people were not allowed to apply for the work.
The CTF gave its "lifetime" award to members of Parliament for their pensions. Craig said MPs are eligible for a $46,000 annual pension after 10 years in the House of Commons.
"Nothing unites [MPs] like defending their own benefits," Craig said.
The Teddy awards are named after a former federal bureaucrat, Ted Weatherill, who was fired in 1999 over his expense claims.
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