From a colossally expensive presidential trip to a pointless fence, a faulty bridge, and an enormous rubber duck, you’ll be amazed at some of the ways the Canadian government has frittered away taxpayers’ cash. Click or scroll through for our roud-up of the most jaw-dropping wastes of money by federal, provincial and municipal government. All figures are in Canadian dollars.

Although the total cost of the project is unknown, in 2019 the City of Toronto spent considerable time and resources to investigate a supposedly illegal act of gambling: elderly residents paying $1.25 to play games of Euchre in community centres. As part of the investigation, bureaucrats created a 186-page document detailing the seniors' activities and released an edict forbidding seniors to pay $1.25 to play the game, saying they would have to pay 25 cents instead. When the story went public, Toronto's Mayor joked about calling off the "fun police". 

Then-international development minister Bev Oda came under fire in 2011 for a luxury upgrade to London's five-star Savoy Hotel that cost the taxpayer $1,995. She also reportedly spent $1,000 a day on a limousine while she was in the UK capital to attend a conference. Oda later repaid $1,353 to cover the difference between the staying at the Savoy and the original hotel, the cancellation fee, and the price of a $16 orange juice she had charged to her room.

Thanks to the Alberta town of Vulcan sharing a name with the homeworld of Star Trek's Dr Spock, the mayor and local councillors were often seen donning ceremonial United Federation of Planets jackets. Back in February 2018, the council voted to replace the ageing jackets for an estimated total of $4,340. Councillor Lyle Magnuson said he did believe the cost was “a lot of money” when he first looked at the price, but added that a local resident was making them.

The City of Vancouver was awarded a Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) Municipal Teddy Award – pig-shaped awards for what it believes are the biggest governmental wastes of money – for an art project that urged people to "email a tree". In 2018, the city posted signs with ID numbers and email addresses on about two dozen trees in the city, inviting visitors to get in touch via email in a bid to highlight local artists. The CTF intially estimated that the total cost of the project was $50,000, based on media reports, although the city later contacted them to confirm it had actually cost $7,000, which the CTF said "remained a ridiculous amount of money".

Back in 2013, Canada's Department for National Defence spent $14,000 on a survey which asked participants whether superheroes can jump over skyscrapers. The study also asked 150 people online whether they can see and walk through walls, become invisible or hear whispers from miles away. The purpose of the poll was to intended to help the Canadian Forces "win the hearts and minds" of the local populations it faces when deployed overseas.

Earning an honourable mention in the 2020 Teddy Awards, independent senator Donna Dasko from Ontario spent $15,000 on surveys in 2019 to find out what Canadians thought of the Senate. The result? They found it pointless and a waste of money.

Government of Saskatchewan-owned electric utility SaskPower spent $20,000 in 2015-2016 maintaining a fish pond at its Regina headquarters. This included $14,716 in maintenance costs, $1,510 in food, $3,672 in repairs and $857 in electricity and filters, according to information obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Global Affairs Canada was clearly feeling plush when it spent $24,638 on 86 leather cushions for chairs at its embassy in Mexico City. Documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation revealed that the cushions were made in Regina, Saskatchewan in 2016, and then sent to Mexico at an additional cost. Global Affairs Canada defended the cost, saying embassies played an important role promoting Canadian-made products abroad.

The Bank of Canada spent nearly $40,000 to promote its newly-designed green $20 banknote back in 2012, according to documents acquired by Postmedia News. The polymer bill, featuring an updated picture of the Queen, was unveiled in a $35,832 campaign that included a seven-storey image of the front and back of the $20 note on the central bank’s east tower. An extra $2,640 was paid to a window cleaning company to prep the building for the display.

Then-prime minister Stephen Harper's 2011 Labour Day weekend trip to New York to watch a Yankees game and a Broadway show came with a hefty price tag. Documents obtained under Access to Information revealed only some of the trip's cost, but did include a $34,633 bill for the use of a Challenger Jet and another $11,026 for the expenses of four staffers. A spokesman later said that Harper reimbursed the accommodation, flights and ticket costs for him, his daughter and two guests.

In 2010 a photo opp of the then-defence minister Peter MacKay posing in a fake F-35 fighter jet to promote the federal government plans to buy 65 of the fighter jets cost taxpayers $47,313. Almost half of the money spent by National Defence went to the audio-visual company that helped stage the event. The F-35 procurement process has proved controversial ever since. 

In a colossal waste of federal cash, in 2019 Parks Canada splashed $65,000 on putting up a large fence halfway up Signal Hill in St. John's, Newfoundland, only for it to be taken down a week after the panels had first gone up. Residents said that the fence obscured views of the city, while the federal agency, which said the fence had been erected to improve visitor safety, admitted the plan had misfired.

A Twitter account for the Canadian health minister caused controversy after it was revealed it costed taxpayers more than $100,000 in salaries and overtime for those who run it. The @CDNMinHealth account, or @MinSanteCAN in French, was set up in 2017 for then-minister Jane Philpott and later run for incumbent portfolio holder, Ginette Petitpas Taylor (pictured).

Spending thousands to celebrate Canada's 150th anniversary in 2017 was like water off a duck's back to some budget holders. The province of Ontario gave the Redpath Waterfront Festival in Toronto a $120,000 grant to bring in a six-storey, 13.4-ton rubber duck. The federal government also contributed $250,000 to take the duck, which was claimed to be the world's largest, on a six-city tour. Organisers later said the festival brought millions of dollars into the city. 

In another ill-advised move from provincial government, New Brunswick spent $130,000 on an all-expenses-paid trip for Toronto-based graffiti artists to come to Saint John. The idea was that the artists would be inspired by the trip and return to Toronto to create New Brunswick-inspired murals in their home city and post them to Instagram. The provincial government defended the trip, saying the artists had received a lot of publicity.

Winning in the Provincial category of the Teddy Awards this year, Yukon's Department of Tourism spent $139,000 on putting gold into a creek and paying social media influencers to pan for gold there in 2019. The move, as part of an initiative to promote tourism, was originally intended to attract $100,000 of private investment but only attracted a fraction of that, and so taxpayers had to foot the bill.

Another part of the Canada 150 celebrations that raised some eyebrows was the Red Couch Tour. The $155,000 federally-funded project did what its name suggested and saw a scarlet couch, pictured here in Yellowknife, travel the country to encourage Canadians to sit down and tell their stories. Artist Ela Kinowska said the tour allowed Canadians to have a valuable conversation about what unites them, while the Canadian Taxpayers Federation deemed it a waste of money.

Some taxpayers choked on discovering that the federal government spent $190,000 on Mrs Dunster's Donut of New Brunswick back in 2011. The money was to be spent on a cold-storage freezer to help the company sell more doughnuts. Then-prime minister Stephen Harper came under particular criticism for the investment, as he'd spent a lot of time as opposition leader claiming he'd save $4 billion in government fat by cutting government grants, loans and subsidies.

Non-profit organisation Engage Nova Scotia, which receives $200,000 from the provincial government each year, came under fire back in 2017 for allegedly not having any tangible benefits to the taxpayer. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation also criticised its CEO, Danny Graham, for getting $163,000 a year salary despite not being able to explain exactly what it is his employer actually did.

In an example of where more government money could have been spent, the rural municipality of Clayton in Saskatchewan faced heavy criticism in 2018 after a bridge it designed on the cheap collapsed just six hours after it was officially opened. The municipality had been granted $750,000 of provincial funding for the $1.1 million Dyck Memorial Bridge project, with the caveat that the crossing met highway standards. But officials felt it was too expensive so went with an independent contractor for a total of about $340,000. It was later discovered that the bridge had been built without a geotechnical investigation of the riverbed.

Another novel project set up for Canada 150 was turning downtown Calgary into a massive game of Snakes and Ladders through different art installations, for a princely sum of $416,000. The game was set up for the 2017 Beakerhead festival and invited visitors to check out a total of 14 locations. 

In 2017, Toronto's transport authority decided to keep a subway digital art installation it had commissioned offline. The $500,000 LightSpell project at the city's Pioneer Village subway station let the public type out eight-letter messages and broadcast them in bright lights above the platform. But the Toronto Transport Commission later refused to turn it on, citing fears about hate speech and the "potential for the installation to be misused by some".

Cardinal Meat Specialists from Brampton, Ontario were handed $826,000 by Agriculture Canada to purchase manufacturing equipment that would help it create a sausage "more resistant to splitting or bursting while cooking". Speaking at the time of the project in 2012, Parliamentary Secretary Pierre Lemieux said the government was focused on jobs, growth, and long-term prosperity, adding the work would help improve Cardinal's competitiveness.

In 2018 it was revealed that city taxpayers had been paying about 60% of the salary of United Firefighters of Winnipeg (UFFW) union president Alex Forrest for the past four years, despite the fact he was actually on leave from firefighting duties. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation estimated the total bill to the city as being at least $1.4 million, adding that he'd taken at least 60 out-of-town trips – none of which involved fighting fires. City Hall later voted to seek full reimbursement. 

The overall winner for the 2019 Teddy Awards was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his $1.66 million family trip to India. The eight-day trip saw only half a day of government business on the itinerary and a celebrity chef from Vancouver was paid to cook at the Canadian High Commission for $17,000. However, the total costs still clocked in considerably lower than Stephen Harper's trip to India in 2012, which racked up a total bill of $2.5 million.

A $1.9 million tourism pavilion at the 2010 G20/G8 Summit in Toronto featured canoes and an artificial lake, that was in fact an inches-deep pool, to promote the Muskoka region of Ontario. Then-prime minister Stephen Harper defended it as being a "$2m marketing project", but Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said of the Experience Canada pavilion: "Canadians wanted leadership, and all they got was a fake lake."

In 2010 a hemp-processing plant in Waskada, Manitoba was handed a $5 million loan by the Canada Economic Action Plan, only to cease trading less than a year later. Farm Genesis reportedly aimed to make everything from hemp milk to hemp granola bars and hemp protein caps. But the 25,000-square-foot plant was left empty shortly afterwards, with all staff laid off and phones left to go unanswered. The provincial government should consider itself lucky for having chipped in a mere $75,000. 

A $6 million ferry service to the Newfoundland and Labrador island of St Brendan's was reported to run at a cost of about $42,000 per resident. The 2015/2016 cost of running the year-round service is also only likely to have risen since then, as the population is thought to have dropped from the 145 residents recorded during the 2016 census. Newfoundland and Labrador is said to spend more per resident than other provinces, thanks to an ageing population and vast geographical area. 

The Canada 150 ice skating rink set up on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in 2017 cost taxpayers a total of $8.2 million. The free-to-use rink was used by about 150,000 skaters, averaging out at about $53 per person or $100,000 a day. Skaters using the rink had to abide by strict rules including no speed or figure skating, no hockey and no carrying children. It was supposed to host a peewee hockey tournament but that ended up being moved inside due to extreme low temperatures.

The Montréal branch of multi-millionaire French chef Joël Robuchon's Atelier restaurants caused a stir when it was funded by Loto Québec, the gambling and lottery agency of the Québec government. Rumoured costs for the restaurant's fitting-out in 2016 were said to be $11 million although the agency later denied this, saying it was "below what has been suggested". Robuchon, who died aged 73 in 2018, was named "Chef of the Century" by the Gault Millau Guide back in 1989. 

The $24 million Namaino cruise ship terminal in British Columbia opened in 2011, with the local port authority predicting between 25 to 30 large cruise calls a season. But only six ships docked there in 2013 and only two a year later, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. And it doesn't look like it's getting any better either... Namaino Port Authority cruise vessel schedule only listed three entries for summer 2019.

The 2017 Montréal ePrix was a series of two Formula E races held in the Québec capital in 2017 for a total cost of $34 million. Only 25,000 of a total of 45,000 tickets were sold, leaving a lot of empty seats. Awarding it that year's Teddy Award for municipal government waste, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation commented: "By any measure, $34 million on a race nobody wants to watch is not a winning formula."

The "flawed" $1 billion Phoenix pay system was scrapped by the federal government after it struggled to pay the wages of public servants. Some $460 million had already been spent on the platform, introduced in 2016, by the time Finance Minister Bill Morneau axed the system last year. Morneau's 2018 budget also outlined that another $450 million would need to spent over six years to address ongoing problems and develop a system that actually worked.

The Ontario Fair Hydro Plan was set up in 2017 to lower residential electricity prices by up to 25% before holding rate increases to the rate of inflation for four years. Rates would then increase by 6.8% every year until 2027 in order to pay back the borrowed money with interest. But it was later concluded the plan would cost taxpayers an extra $39 billion, including $21 billion in interest. In 2019 the provincial government said it would end the plan, set up by the previous administration. 

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