OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) will host its 16th annual Teddies Waste Awards black tie ceremony in the Charles Lynch Press Theatre on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, tomorrow, February 26th, 2014 at 10:30 a.m. Like the past three years, the ceremony will run between 8 and 10 minutes.
This year’s host will be CTF Federal Director Gregory Thomas. He will be joined by Porky the Waste Hater (the CTF’s tuxedo-wearing pig mascot) and our charming and talented awards hostess.
The waste awards are gilded pig statuettes awarded in four categories; local waste, provincial waste, federal waste and lifetime achievement. This year there are 17 nominees in the four categories.
Last year’s winners were:
Federal Teddy Award: Chief Roger Redman of Saskatchewan's Standing Buffalo First Nation, who padlocked the band office and confiscated the the band's chequebook when members gathered to impeach him. Redman took home more after-tax income than the Prime Minister for his leadership role in the 443-member community.
Provincial Teddy Award: Former Alberta Tourism Minister Christine Cusanelli, who billed taxpayers for a trip to the London Olympics for herself, her daughter and her mother, before eventually paying the money back.
Local Teddy Award: The Toronto Maintenance and Skilled Trades Council, who billed Toronto taxpayers $143 to attach a pencil sharpener to a desk with four screws, and $266 to hang three pictures on a wall. The council's president, Jimmy Hazel helpfully explained to a Toronto Star reporter "we don't need to f---ing prove anything to anybody about costs."
Lifetime Achievement Teddy Award: Former Conservative cabinet minister Bev Oda, who went to her $52,000 annual pension-for-life reward after famously expensing two luxury hotels on the same nights at a conference in London, England, and hiring a chauffeured limo to shuttle between them. And billing taxpayers for $16 glasses of orange juice.
Gregory Thomas, Federal Director
