Business
Craziest examples of government waste – Taxpayer Waste Watch

News release from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
The feds are spending millions of your tax dollars trying to “green” their offices. Then the government is spending millions more of your tax dollars flying battalions of bureaucrats and politicians around the world.
Here’s a crazy idea: the government could save you money, and cut down on emissions, by skipping out on a couple taxpayer-funded international conferences.
Plus, we’ve compiled the craziest examples of government waste in one video. You’re going to love the video, but hate the waste.
All that and more in this week’s Taxpayer Waste Watch. Enjoy.
Franco.
Bank of Canada fixes with its left hand, what it breaks with its right
They say hypocrites are the kind of people who will cut down a tree, only to stand on the stump and give a speech about the importance of protecting forests.
Someone should get the fat cats at the Bank of Canada on the horn and let them know about that particular definition.
In recent years, the Bank of Canada dumped millions of your tax dollars into a green initiative aimed at lowering its carbon footprint.
Meanwhile, at the exact same time, its executives have been racking up frequent flyer miles while globetrotting to exotic, far-flung locales.
Burning through jet fuel and your tax dollars in the process.
Since 2020, the Bank of Canada dropped $4.1 million on its “greening the bank” initiative, a multi-year effort to measure and reduce its carbon footprint.
More than $1 million has been spent on internal program costs, alongside $950,000 on external consultants and studies, and $2.1 million on green investments.
On top of the greening the bank initiative, the Bank of Canada also signed a contract with the Delphi Group for up to $300,000.
The Delphi Group is a consulting firm “specializing in climate change, sustainability and ESG,” according to its website.
Six staff from the Delphi Group will aid the Bank of Canada’s “annual quantification of its GHG inventory,” according to records obtained by the CTF.
But if the Bank of Canada is looking for ways to lower its carbon footprint, it doesn’t need to spend millions hiring consultants.
All it has to do is look at its executives’ expense reports.
In 2023, Bank of Canada executives racked up $535,000 in travel expenses.
Bank executives took dozens of trips to exotic destinations, including Portugal, Japan, Greece, France, Sweden, Germany, India, Peru, the West Indies and Switzerland.
Bank Governor Tiff Macklem racked up $179,000 in travel expenses alone.
Macklem took 26 separate trips, including four visits to Switzerland, two to Sweden, two to India and one each to Morocco, Portugal, Japan and the Caymen Islands.
So first you’re forced to pay for first-class airfare so bank executives can jet set around the globe to attend conferences and give speeches.
And then you’re forced to pay for millions in consultant fees because the big brains at the central bank are confused why their carbon footprint is so high.
Needless to say, if they can’t crack that puzzle, then it’s little wonder why inflation has run rampant while ravaging the paycheques of taxpayers like you.
But don’t worry, folks.
If the bank runs out of your cash to blow on all these vacations – erm, sorry, we mean “work trips” – we’re sure they’ll just fire up the money printer to cover the costs.
Franco’s note: Any time we write about the Bank of Canada I need to mention this:
The Bank of Canada has one job: keep inflation low and around two per cent. Bank of Canada bureaucrats got $20 million in bonuses in 2022 while it hiked interest rates seven times and inflation reached a 40-year high.
This should go without saying, but bonuses are for people who do a good job, not people who fail at their one and only job.
Trudeau wants to spend your money on…
Every year, the federal government tables main and supplementary estimate documents that detail how your money will be allocated to fund government programs.
But with all the shenanigans currently holding up the House of Commons, the Trudeau government is worried they may not be able to fund these government schemes.
It’s a good bet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his minions will claim a vote is needed to make sure struggling Canadians get the help they need.
But the CTF read through the entirety of the recently-released Supplementary Estimates report to see what sort of spending the feds are actually proposing:
- $970 million to cover pay raises for bureaucrats
- $4.5 million for government advertising
- $46 million for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup
- $20 million for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Canada Media Fund
- $200,000 for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plan to plant two billion trees
- $45 million for the gun confiscation scheme
- $6.9 million for pro-carbon tax ads
- $5.5 million for the Toronto Film Festival
- $3.4 million for settlements related to the Phoenix payroll fiasco
Does any of that sound like necessary government spending to you?
VIDEO: Craziest government waste
We’ve said it time and time again.
You pay too much tax because the government wastes too much money.
Don’t believe us? Then watch (and share) the video below.
CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano brings the receipts on some of the craziest government waste that’s out of Ottawa in recent years.
If you’re looking for more reading on taxpayer issues, we’ve got you covered.
Canada’s EV gamble looks even more foolish with Trump retaking the White House: https://torontosun.com/
Government employees scored $150M in standby pay last year: https://torontosun.com/
Saskatoon spent more than $300,000 to name new bus system: https://www.taxpayer.
Confirms $523K Rush Orders: https://www.
Trudeau’s bureaucracy boom: Salaries and spending spiralling out of control: https://www.
Premier Holt’s carbon tax flip-flop: https://tj.news/
Carbon Tax
The book the carbon taxers don’t want you to read

By Franco Terrazzano
Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote a 500-page book praising carbon taxes.
Well, I just wrote a book smashing through the government’s carbon tax propaganda.
It tells the inside story of the fight against the carbon tax. And it’s THE book the carbon taxers don’t want you to read.
My book is called Axing the Tax: The Rise and Fall of Canada’s Carbon Tax.
Axing the Tax: The Rise and Fall of Canada’s Carbon Tax
Every now and then, the underdog wins one.
And it looks like that’s happening in the fight against the carbon tax.
It’s not over yet, but support for the carbon tax is crumbling. Some politicians vow to scrap it. Others hide behind vague plans to repackage it. But virtually everyone recognizes support for the current carbon tax has collapsed.
It wasn’t always this way.
For about a decade now, powerful politicians, government bureaucrats, academics, media elites and even big business have been pushing carbon taxes on the people.
But most of the time, politicians never asked the people if they supported carbon taxes. In other words, carbon taxes, and the resulting higher gas prices and heating bills, were forced on us.
We were told it was good for us. We were told carbon taxes were inevitable. We were told politicians couldn’t win elections without carbon taxes, even though the politicians that imposed them didn’t openly run on them. We were told that we needed to pay carbon taxes if we wanted to leave a healthy environment for our kids and grandkids. We were told we needed to pay carbon taxes if we wanted to be respected in the international community.
In this decade-long fight, it would have been understandable if the people had given up and given in to these claims. It would have been easier to accept what the elites wanted and just pay the damn bill. But against all odds, ordinary Canadians didn’t give up.
Canadians knew you could care about the environment and oppose carbon taxes. Canadians saw what they were paying at the gas station and on their heating bills, and they knew they were worse off, regardless of how many politicians, bureaucrats, journalists and academics tried to convince them otherwise. Canadians didn’t need advanced degrees in economics, climate science or politics to understand they were being sold a false bill of goods.
Making it more expensive for a mom in Port Hope to get to work, or grandparents in Toronto to pay their heating bill, or a student in Coquitlam to afford food won’t reduce emissions in China, Russia, India or the United States. It just leaves these Canadians, and many like them, with less money to afford everything else.
Ordinary Canadians understood carbon taxes amount to little more than a way for governments to take more money from us and dictate how we should live our lives. Ordinary Canadians also saw through the unfairness of the carbon tax.
Many of the elites pushing the carbon tax—the media, politicians, taxpayer-funded professors, laptop activists and corporate lobbyists—were well off and wouldn’t feel the brunt of carbon taxes. After all, living in a downtown condo and clamouring for higher carbon taxes doesn’t require much gas, diesel or propane.
But running a business, working in a shop, getting kids to soccer and growing food on the farm does. These are the Canadians the political class forgot about when pushing carbon taxes. These are the Canadians who never gave up. These are the Canadians who took time out of their busy lives to sign petitions, organize and attend rallies, share posts on social media, email politicians and hand out bumper stickers.
Because of these Canadians, the carbon tax could soon be swept onto the ash heap of history. I wrote this book for two reasons.
The first is because these ordinary Canadians deserve it. They worked really hard for a really long time against the odds. When all the power brokers in government told them, “Do what we say—or pay,” they didn’t give up. They deserve to know the time and effort they spent fighting the carbon tax mattered. They deserve all the credit.
Thank you for everything you did.
The second reason I wrote this book is so people know the real story of the carbon tax. The carbon tax was bad from the start and we fought it from the start. By reading this book, you will get the real story about the carbon tax, a story you won’t find anywhere else.
This book is important because if the federal Liberals’ carbon tax is killed, the carbon taxers will try to lay blame for their defeat on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. They will try to say that carbon taxes are a good idea, but Trudeau bungled the policy or wasn’t a good enough salesman. They will try to revive the carbon tax and once again make you pay more for gas, groceries, and home heating.
Just like with any failed five-year plan, there is a lingering whiff among the laptop class and the taxpayer-funded desk rulers that this was all a communication problem, that the ideal carbon tax hasn’t been tried yet. I can smell it outside my office building in Ottawa, where I write these words. We can’t let those embers smoulder and start a fire again.
This book shows why the carbon tax is and always will be bad policy for ordinary Canadians.
Franco’s note: You can pre-order a copy of my new book, Axing the Tax: The Rise and Fall of Canada’s Carbon Tax, here: https://www.amazon.ca/Axing-
2025 Federal Election
Poilievre To Create ‘Canada First’ National Energy Corridor

From Conservative Party Communications
Poilievre will create the ‘Canada First’ National Energy Corridor to rapidly approve & build the infrastructure we need to end our energy dependence on America so we can stand up to Trump from a position of strength.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced today he will create a ‘Canada First’ National Energy Corridor to fast-track approvals for transmission lines, railways, pipelines, and other critical infrastructure across Canada in a pre-approved transport corridor entirely within Canada, transporting our resources within Canada and to the world while bypassing the United States. It will bring billions of dollars of new investment into Canada’s economy, create powerful paycheques for Canadian workers, and restore our economic independence.
“After the Lost Liberal decade, Canada is poorer, weaker, and more dependent on the United States than ever before,” said Poilievre. “My ‘Canada First National Energy Corridor’ will enable us to quickly build the infrastructure we need to strengthen our country so we can stand on our own two feet and stand up to the Americans.”
In the corridor, all levels of government will provide legally binding commitments to approve projects. This means investors will no longer face the endless regulatory limbo that has made Canadians poorer. First Nations will be involved from the outset, ensuring that economic benefits flow directly to them and that their approval is secured before any money is spent.
Between 2015 and 2020, Canada cancelled 16 major energy projects, resulting in a $176 billion hit to our economy. The Liberals killed the Energy East pipeline and passed Bill C-69, the “No-New-Pipelines” law, which makes it all but impossible to build the pipelines and energy infrastructure we need to strengthen the Canadian economy. And now, the PBO projects that the ‘Carney cap’ on Canadian energy will reduce oil and gas production by nearly 5%, slash GDP by $20.5 billion annually, and eliminate 54,400 full-time jobs by 2032. An average mine opening lead time is now nearly 18 years—23% longer than Australia and 38% longer than the US. As a result of the Lost Liberal Decade, Canada now ranks 23rd in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index for 2024, a seven-place drop since 2015.
“In 2024, Canada exported 98% of its crude oil to the United States. This leaves us too dependent on the Americans,” said Poilievre. “Our Canada First National Energy Corridor will get us out from under America’s thumb and enable us to build the infrastructure we need to sell our natural resources to new markets, bring home jobs and dollars, and make us sovereign and self-reliant to stand up to Trump from a position of strength.”
Mark Carney’s economic advice to Justin Trudeau made Canada weaker while he and his rich friends made out like bandits. While he advised Trudeau to cancel Canadian energy projects, his own company spent billions on pipelines in South America and the Middle East. And unlike our competitors Australia and America, which work with builders to get projects approved, Mark Carney and Steven Guilbeault’s radical “keep-it-in-the-ground” ideology has blocked development, killed jobs, and left Canada dependent on foreign imports.
“The choice is clear: a fourth Liberal term that will keep our resources in the ground and keep us weak and vulnerable to Trump’s threats, or a strong new Conservative government that will approve projects, build an economic fortress, bring jobs and dollars home, and put Canada First—For a Change.”
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