From: AlanBaggett@volcanomail.com   
      
   Canada Revenue Agency Wins Federal Money Wasting Award  :CRA SOTW    
      
   Revenue Agency takes home not-so-coveted federal waste award     
      
   By Amy Minsky   
      
   The Canada Revenue Agency won the Canadian Taxpayers Federation annual award   
   for greatest fiscal waste by a federal agency.   
      
   The Canada Revenue Agency is this year’s recipient of the not-so-coveted   
   Teddy Award, a pig-shaped statuette awarded each year to municipal, provincial   
   and federal departments deemed the most wasteful by a right-leaning taxpayer   
   advocacy group.   
      
   The CRA was in the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s crosshairs this year for   
   reimbursing an employee $538,000 in expenses for a 191-kilometre move from   
   Richmond Hill, Ont. to Belleville, Ont.   
      
   According to the federation, $340,000 of the reimbursement was for “price   
   protection” on the sale of a home, and $168,000 went to realtor fees.   
      
   “The CTF calculated taxpayers forked out half a million taxpayer dollars to   
   cover the sale of a bureaucrat’s $3.4-million house,” federal director   
   Aaron Wudrick said on Wednesday.   
      
   That was the most expensive move the Canadian Taxpayers Federation found in   
   documents it obtained through Access to Information laws.   
      
   Other relatively expense reimbursements from their documents included $198,619   
   for a move from Ottawa to Victoria, $178,251 for a move from Toronto to   
   Winnipeg, and $149,919 for a move from Ottawa to Calgary.   
      
   A spokesperson for National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier said that   
   although the agency followed relocation policies, the minister asked for a   
   review.   
      
   “[She] asked her officials to review this policy, recognizing these types of   
   relocations must be done at the most reasonable cost to the public,” the   
   spokesperson wrote in an email to Global News. “This work has been done and   
   the Agency amended its    
   policy.”   
      
   Moving expenses were also in the headlines this year when it was revealed that   
   two of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s top aides charged taxpayers $200,000   
   in relocation expenses for their move to Ottawa.   
      
   The Teddy Award is named for Ted Weatherill, a former federal appointee who   
   was fired in 1999 for submitting a slew of dubious expense claims, including a   
   $700 lunch for two.   
      
   Other award winners this year included:   
      
   •	The Ontario government for spending more than $39 million on subsidies for   
   electric vehicles over the past six years, including $14 million for vehicles   
   retailing at more than $70,000.   
      
   •	The City of Victoria for its over budget and delayed plan to replace its   
   93-year-old Johnson St. Bridge. That budget has ballooned to $105 million from   
   the original $63 million in 2009.   
      
   •	Ontario’s provincial government was also honoured with the Lifetime   
   Achievement Award for its handling of the energy file. In her 2015 annual   
   report, Ontario’s auditor general found consumers paid $37 billion above   
   market price for energy between    
   2006 and 2014, and estimated that current energy policies would cost Ontarians   
   another $133 billion by 2032, according to the taxpayers federation.   
      
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