Calgary's much delayed and some say overpriced and unnecessary bridge project didn't win, but was nominated for an award for wasteful spending from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The federation announced its annual "Teddy" awards in Ottawa on Wednesday to draw attention to what it recognizes as taxpayer waste.
The Peace Bridge, which has been delayed for 15 months and is now skirting claims of going over budget because of landscaping issues, was on the short list for the most wasteful government project, but the award ultimately went to the City of Montreal for paying snowplow operators to drive up and down streets that had no snow.
Alberta did receive some distinction by winning the provincial award for Alberta's ‘standing committee on privileges and elections'.
In the committee, 21 MLAs from all parties are paid a thousand dollars a month to sit on the committee which hadn't met since a very short meeting in 2008.
The federation says that the committee has wasted about $2M in taxpayer money since its inception.
It's the 14th year that the federation has handed out the awards, nicknamed the Teddies after a bureaucrat infamous for extravagant expense claims.
Other winners of the awards signified by a gilded pig statue is a federal program that spent millions paying farmers to get out of the tobacco business only to see production double the following year.
Former Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe took the lifetime achievement award for allegedly billing taxpayers for partisan political activities.
With files from ctv.ca
