Energy war room receives nomination for wasteful spending award
Posted Mar 5, 2020 10:57 am.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) -The United Conservative government has been nominated for a big award but not one they’d like to win.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) released its list of winners for the 2020 Teddy Awards for wasteful spending projects.
The energy war room, known officially as the Canadian Energy Centre was nominated in the provincial category for its fiasco over stealing another company’s logo.
Alberta's War Room is a provincial nominee for @taxpayerDOTcom annual Teddy Waste Awards for its logo debacle.
To say the $30 million/year war room hasn’t gone off to a stellar start would be an understatement. #ableg #abpoli pic.twitter.com/ich96SMhYy
— Franco Terrazzano (@franco_nomics) March 5, 2020
When the centre launched in December 2019 it quickly came under fire after many people noticed its logo was the same as that from American software firm Progress.
RELATED: Energy war room under fire for new logo
The energy centre quickly retracted the logo and replaced it shortly after but that one has also been accused of being plagiarized.
“To say the $30 million/year war room hasn’t gone off to a stellar start would be an understatement,” said Alberta Director of the CTF Franco Terrazzano in a tweet. “We don’t know how much the logo problems cost taxpayers because the war room isn’t fully subject to Freedom of Information, even though it’s publicly funded.”
The Yukon Department of Tourism ultimately won the provincial award after spending $139,000 on a campaign that planted gold in a creek.
Federally, the CTF singled out Global Affairs Canada for an $11.2 million fund that saw chefs fly around the world to cook at various Canadian diplomatic missions.
Other winners of the Teddy Awards include the City of Toronto for investigating alleged illegal gambling operations at community centres where seniors paid $1.25 to play euchre and the former mayor of Montreal who stands to collect more than $1 million in pension payments despite serving a prison sentence for corruption and bribery.
