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Feds spend $4.3 million printing out budget

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From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Author: Ryan Thorpe

The average cost for each copy of the budget is $110.

Federal documents, including the budget, are routinely made available for free on government websites.

Here’s how the federal government could have saved money printing the budget:

It could have bought 1,000 top of the line, all-in-one printers at retail price.

Then it could have bought 10,000 multi-packs of colour ink.

Along with 106,000 reams of paper.

And then it could have assigned one of the 108,000 new bureaucrats hired under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to print out copies of the budget.

Or it could have bought more than 333,000 USB flash drives and handed out digital copies to anyone who wanted to read it.

And even after this epic office supply shopping spree, Ottawa would have saved a million dollars.

Instead, Ottawa blew $4.3 million on printing the federal budget since 2015.

In fact, the government continues to spend half-a-million dollars a year printing paper copies of the budget, more than a decade after authorizing the transition to digital-only publications, according to documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“It’s 2024, presumably the government isn’t still using carrier pigeons, so it probably doesn’t need to spend half-a-million dollars printing paper copies of its budget every year,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Not only are taxpayers getting soaked by what’s in the budget, we’re also getting a six-figure tab just to print it out.”

On average, the federal government spends $482,000 annually printing out thousands of copies of its budget, despite the fact the government has been trumpeting its embrace of the digital economy for years.

The costliest year on record was 2023, when the Trudeau government spent $753,160 printing 4,200 copies of the federal budget, according to the records.

That was $443,370 more than the Conservatives spent in 2015, the last year in which the government of former prime minister Stephen Harper tabled a budget.

The least expensive year on record was 2021, when the government spent $215,434 printing copies of its budget.

Cost of printing the federal budget, 2015 to 2024, access-to-information records

Year

Number of copies

Cost

2015

5,911

$309,790

2016

5,876

$490,334

2017

5,937

$553,804

2018

5,561

$655,645

2019

4,874

$457,793

2020

N/A

N/A

2021

1,599

$215,434

2022

3,035

$632,273

2023

4,200

$753,160

2024

2,225

$270,418

Total

39,218

$4,338,651

Given the number of copies the government prints each year, the federal budget would constitute a best seller in the Canadian publishing industry, according to BookNet Canada.

The average cost for each copy of the budget is $110.

In 2012, the Harper government authorized federal departments to transition to online-only publications, estimating the move would save taxpayers $178 million annually.

Federal documents, including the budget, are routinely made available for free on government websites.

“The government proved in 2021 that it could bring printing costs down, so taxpayers expect that to happen every year moving forward,” Terrazzano said. “Printing some physical copies is understandable, but an average tab of half-a-million-dollars is silly.”

Since 2015, the federal government printed 39,218 physical copies of the budget.

According to online calculations, roughly 1,460 standard pine trees would have been cut down to produce that volume of paper.

The Trudeau government is more than 1.8 billion trees short of its promise to plant two billion trees by 2030.

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Molson Coors beer company walks back DEI policy after being exposed on X

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

An internal memo from brewing giant Molson Coors Beverage Co. reveals that the company is abandoning its DEI hiring and promotion processes, meaning it will no longer be making decisions based on race, sexuality or other categories.

Brewing giant Molson Coors Beverage Co., a large Canadian-American multinational company, will be dropping its woke corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies after it received backlash online following an exposé by a popular conservative activist. 

A recently revealed internal memo says that the company’s DEI employee training process has been discontinued, and as such it will no longer have specific “representation goals” in how it hires new people.  

The company, as per a Canadian Press report, will also no longer be participating in the Human Rights Campaign ranking program. The Human Rights Campaign is an LGBT advocacy group that ranks companies based on how “inclusive” their workplaces are.  

According to Molson Coors, it will now follow its own internal metrics to develop a “strong workplace where everyone can thrive.” 

Robby Starbuck, a conservative activist and filmmaker, had earlier called out Molson Coors for its woke DEI policies, noting on X on September 3 that he recently “let them know that I planned to expose their woke policies.” 

“Today they’re preemptively making changes,” he wrote.  

Starbuck said that the coming changes include, “Ending participation in the @HRC’s woke Corporate Equality Index social credit system,” as well as “No more DEI based training programs.” 

Also gone will be donations to “divisive events.” There will also be no more “supplier diversity goals” as well as “executive/employee compensation tied to DEI hiring goals.” 

As reported by LifeSiteNews, over the past decade left-wing activists have used DEI dogma as well as “environmental, social, & governance” (ESG) standards to encourage major Canadian and U.S. corporations to take particular stands when it comes to both political and cultural issues, notably in promotion of homosexuality, transgenderism, race relations, the environment, and abortion.  

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Agriculture

P&H Group building $241-million flour milling facility in Red Deer County.

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P&H Milling Group has qualified for the Agri-Processing Investment Tax Credit program

Alberta’s food processing sector is the second-largest manufacturing industry in the province and the flour milling industry plays an important role within the sector, generating millions in annual economic impact and creating thousands of jobs. As Canada’s population continues to increase, demand for high-quality wheat flour products is expected to rise. With Alberta farmers growing about one-third of Canada’s wheat crops, the province is well-positioned to help meet this demand.

Alberta’s Agri-Processing Investment Tax Credit program is supporting this growing sector by helping to attract a new wheat flour milling business to Red Deer County. P&H Milling Group, a division of Parrish & Heimbecker, Limited, is constructing a $241-million facility in the hamlet of Springbrook to mill about 750 metric tonnes of wheat from western Canadian farmers into flour, every single day. The new facility will complement the company’s wheat and durum milling operation in Lethbridge.

“P&H Milling Group’s new flour mill project is proof our Agri-Processing Investment Tax Credit program is doing its job to attract large-scale investments in value-added agricultural manufacturing. With incentives like the ag tax credit, we’re providing the right conditions for processors to invest in Alberta, expand their business and help stimulate our economy.”

RJ Sigurdson, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation

P&H Milling Group’s project is expected to create about 27 permanent and 200 temporary jobs. Byproducts from the milling process will be sold to the livestock feed industry across Canada to create products for cattle, poultry, swine, bison, goats and fish. The new facility will also have capacity to add two more flour mills as demand for product increases in the future.

“This new facility not only strengthens our position in the Canadian milling industry, but also boostsAlberta’s baking industry by supplying high-quality flour to a diverse range of customers. We are proud to contribute to the local economy and support the agricultural community by sourcing 230,000 metric tonnes of locally grown wheat each year.”

John Heimbecker, CEO, Parrish & Heimbecker, Limited

To be considered for the tax credit program, corporations must invest at least $10 million in a project to build or expand a value-added agri-processing facility in Alberta. The program offers a 12 per cent non-refundable tax credit based on eligible capital expenditures. Through this program, Alberta’s government has granted P&H Milling Group conditional approval for a tax credit estimated at $27.3 million.

“We are grateful P&H Milling Group chose to build here in Red Deer County. This partnership willbolster our local economy and showcase our prime centralized location in Alberta, an advantage that facilitates efficient operations and distribution.”

Jim Wood, mayor, Red Deer County

Quick facts

  • In 2023, Alberta’s food processing sector generated $24.3 billion in sales, making it the province’s second-largest manufacturing industry, behind petroleum and coal.
  • That same year, just over three million metric tonnes of milled wheat and more than 2.3 million metric tonnes of wheat flour was manufactured in Canada.
  • Alberta’s milled wheat and meslin flour exports increased from $8.6 million in 2019 to $19.8 million in 2023, a 130.2 per cent increase.
  • Demand for flour products rose in Alberta from 2019 to 2022, with retail sales increasing by 24 per cent during that period.
  • Alberta’s flour milling industry generated about $840.7 million in economic impact and created more than 2,200 jobs on average between 2018 and 2021.
  • Alberta farmers produced 9.3 million metric tonnes of wheat in 2023, representing 29.2 per cent of total Canadian production.

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