So let it be written…
Could you use $30,480?
I sure could. That’s roughly the income tax I plus two other people like me pay every year. Hard earned money, from our pockets to that great big toilet bowl in Ottawa.
You’ll no doubt be happy, if you don’t know already, to learn that the federal Liberal government spent $30,480 to change the name of its job training agency from “Future Skills Lab” to “Future Skills Centre.”
That’s one expensive coin flip. Rather, public opinion poll, and consultants’ fees.
To change one word.
It works out to $10,160 each for the three extra letters. So, all of my income tax for the year – or perhaps it was yours – was blown on a single letter. Isn’t that just $10,160 worth of grand?
Shameful, wasteful spending is not exclusive to any particular party or government. They all do it, and these guys just got caught for this, this time. As for the big picture? Like Colonel Jessup says, you can’t handle the truth.
Another beaut, recently brought into the light of day by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, is Global Affairs Canada having spent $24,638 for 86 leather cushions for chairs at the embassy in Mexico City. That’s $286 per cushion, citizens.
Where do these people who authorize these kinds of purchases – ironically, on our behalf – think they live?
Babylon?
Maybe in a magical kingdom, where unicorns wade belly deep in dragon’s gold?
I just went online and, after a few keystrokes, found some chair cushions at Staples for $17.96 each. They look quite comfortable. Good enough for people’s butts, anyway.
According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, since 2016 Global Affairs Canada has spent more than $127,000 on crystal glassware, buying 1,032 glasses at $117 each when even ritzy Tiffany’s sells crystal wine glasses for $55 apiece.
“It’s crazy that the government could actually save money by shopping at Tiffany’s for their wine glasses,” CTF’s federal director Aaron Wudrick says at taxpayer.com. “It’s crystal clear that $117 glasses are a big waste of taxpayers’ money.”
Well said, Mr. Wudrick. Captain Obvious would agree. I certainly do.
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And then there’s those 48 shrimp/sherbet cups, at $113 each, to the tune of $5,424, and 42 martini glasses at $124 each, that cost Canadian taxpayers $5,208.
In 2017, the Trudeau government spent $66,008 on producing the cover of its budget, and $28,100 on its 2016 budget cover. To its credit, the government spent $563 on its 2018 budget cover after the public learned about the outrageous spending.
Still doesn’t excuse past transgressions, though.
And who can forget Tory MP Bev Oda’s $16 glass of orange juice, decadently imbibed at London’s Savoy Hotel?
But it’s all drops of water over Niagara Falls, isn’t it?
Have you seen Canada’s national debt, at nationaldebtclocks.org? The numbers are spinning like fruit on the screen of a casino slot machine. The part that isn’t blurring by has the national debt at $1.8 trillion. Roughly another thousand dollars added in the time you can say one Mississippi. That’s $928 in interest per second. And the debt per person, in this country of 38,285,770 people, or so, is $32,542.
Oh yeah, this excludes provincial debt.
So, can you handle the truth?
Heaven help us.
So let it be done.