Montreal's Formula E race last summer may have left a bad taste in the mouths of many but at least it's an award winning race.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) announced its Teddy Waste Award winners at its 20th annual ceremony, celebrating the best of the worst in government spending.
Joined by CTF’s pig mascot Porky the Waster Hater and talented event hostess Jessica, CTF Federal Director Aaron Wudrick handed out the awards in four categories: Municipal, Provincial, Federal and Lifetime Achievement.
“Every year, the competition is stiff, but we narrow it down to a handful of the most ridiculous stories,” said Wudrick. “Sadly, we are never short on nominees, as governments seem to be very good at finding new ways to waste money.”
Montreal took home the Municipal award for the subsidies and spending for last summer's Formula E event.
Wudrick noted the city decided to build a track in the middle of downtown despite already having a world class racetrack and gave away two tickets for each one sold just to fill the mostly empty bleachers.
“By any measure, $34 million on a race nobody wants to watch is not a winning formula,” said Wudrick.
The Formula E beat out the Toronto Transit Commission's $1.9 million “word art” project, the United Firefighters of Winnipeg for taking a 40% taxpayer subsidy for their union president’s salary and the City of Toronto's $10K staircase.
Montreal even managed to beat itself, as the city received a second nomination for spending millions of dollars paying senior police officers overtime to direct traffic.