The Phoenix Pay System fiasco is the Canadian Taxpayers Federation Lifetime Achievement Teddy Waste Award winner for being the best of the worst in government waste. CTF Federal Director, Aaron Wudrick, says the debacle spans twelve years and two federal governments with around $2.6-billion in wasted taxpayer money.
It was originally supposed to save taxpayers money, but Wudrick explains there were cost overruns and delays which saw many federal employees not getting paid properly for years. It has now been fixed, but not without one more twist of the screw. Wudrick says earlier this year, it was revealed that bonus payments totalling $1.7-million were paid to senior bureaucrats responsible for the program’s disastrous implementation. He suggests getting bonuses for wasting taxpayer money could only ever happen in government.
The awards are named after Ted Weatherill, a formal federal appointee who was fired in 1999 for submitting a large amount of dubious expense claims, including a $700 lunch for two.
One of the nominees in the federal category was Health Minister Patty Hajdu for taking multiple weekend trips home to her Thunder Bay riding at a cost of over $73,000, despite repeatedly imploring Canadians to avoid non-essential travel.
The dubious winner is former governor general Julie Payette, who stepped down after it came to light she had belittled and publicly humiliated Rideau Hall staff and had created a toxic workplace atmosphere. Wudrick says the reason she was chosen was she spent $650,000 on her swearing-in ceremony and another half a million on renovations at the governor general’s residence, although she never actually moved in.
Regina City Council was a nominee in the municipal government category for giving themselves a 26 per cent salary increase in the middle of a pandemic, after laying off 80 per cent of the city’s casual staff. The winner in the municipal category was the City of Toronto’s cancelled bike lanes, after spending $160,000 on four kilometres of bike lanes, then tearing them out five months later at a cost of another $80,000.
Check out the complete list of nominees and winners by clicking on this link: 2021TEDDYBACKGROUNDER