Sometimes it is just shocking to be, and read, The Taxpayer
I was so overcome by knowledge, frustration, anger, and curiosity after reading just a few pages of the latest edition of The Taxpayer magazine that I just had to share it with you this week.
• Canadian taxpayers will not be paid back the $2.6 billion in loans and interest handed over to now bankrupt “old Chrysler” as part of a 2009 bailout. Attempts to recover the funds failed and has been written off as bad debt by the federal government.
• Fearing a brown recluse spider was in the building, 50 federal employees in Ottawa were sent home twice for a couple of days each while the building was fumigated and ducts cleaned costing $18,000 plus lost work production. Caught, the spider was a harmless yellow sac. There have been five or less recluse spiders ever recorded in Canada, and they almost never bite humans.
• The federal government spent $499,800 to come up with a name, logo and website for one of its agencies whose purpose was to combat poverty in developing countries. The government agency didn’t like the name chosen so stuck with their original title.
• Politicians, concerned that citizens might say things that aren’t true at election time, will spend $7 million for fact checkers (yes, you read that right, politicians concerned about truth).
• The federal and Ontario governments gave Maple Leaf Foods $62.5 million for job creation. The food giant is building a new plant with the money, and closed others putting 300 people out of work. . . . contd.
