A massive, six-storey-tall rubber duck is now gracing the Toronto Waterfront. It was put into place yesterday, ahead of the weekend's RedPath Waterfront Festival, after weeks of fanfare and controversy.
It is unclear just how much the installation is costing the provincial government in Ontario -- reports are ranging from around $70,000 to as much as $200,000. But irrespective of how high the price tag is, many in the province say it's a waste of money. A member of the opposition Progressive Conservatives, Rick Nicholls, said in Question Period, “People are already treading water, trying to pay their bills, and you float this rubber ducky right in their faces?”
The festival the duck is in Toronto for has received about $120,000 from the Ontario government, and $250,000 from the federal government, from the Canada 150 tour. Some of the federal money will be used to tour the duck around the country, to six cities.
Now, it is also emerging that the duck itself is a counterfeit. The duck it is supposed to look like went on a famous tour of cities around the world earlier this decade. But the Dutch studio that was responsible for that original installation told Vice News that the one in Toronto is actually a fake, built using plans modelled off of the original.
“Had the Canadian government official tried to contact us, we would have provided the real duck,” the studio, Florentijn Hofman, told Vice.