They’re called the “Teddy’s, named after a former bureaucrat (terminated in 1998) who had exhibited particular exuberance in spending taxpayer money not in accordance with his position especially when it came to meals, in once case charging $700 for a lunch in Paris.
The awards have been handed out annually for the past 17 years by the non-profit advocacy group, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Aaron Wudrick is the Federal Director of the CTF in the national capital, Ottawa.
ListenThe annual awards are given to a person or group in each level of government, municipal, provincial, and federal, along with a lifetime “achievement” award. The trophies resemble a pig, in accordance with the concept of “pigs at the public trough”.
They’re not actually given to recipients as it’s highly unlikely they’d be appreciated, but are instead symbolic designed to be a slightly humourous way of pointing out and shaming, government waste of taxpayers money
Some past examples of “winners” include the 2013 federal award to aboriginal Chief of the 443 member Standing Buffalo First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan who awarded himself a salary equivalent to more than that the Prime Minister. And the 2013 lifetime achievement award went to former federal politician Bev Oda for expensing chauffeured limos, luxury hotels, an air purifier so she could smoke in her office, and a $52,000 annual pension, and ordering a glass of orange juice which cost taxpayers $16.
In 2012 the provincial award went to Alberta members of the legislature who earned $1,000 monthly for a committee that hasn’t held a meeting since 2008.
In 2010 the municipal Teddy went to the City of Toronto’s Homeless Audit, which paid people $100 daily to dress up and pretend to be homeless.
And the list goes on.
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