Ont. premier, federal finance minister top CTF’s naughty list

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OTTAWA — They’ve made their list, and they’ve checked it twice.

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The Canadian Taxpayers Federation released their annual installment of their Naughty and Nice List on Monday, a list of all the good — and bad — little boys and girls in the world of public governance and fiscal accountability.

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Doug Ford, Frankie Bubbles top Santa’s naughty list

Topping the naughty list this year is Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose decision to gift fellow politicians a juicy pay raise earned him a spot on the naughty list.

“Ontario Premier Doug Ford topped the Taxpayer Naughty List for dishing out Santa-sized pay hikes to politicians,” said the CTF’s federal director Franco Terrazzano.

“Ford took a pay raise that would make even Ebenezer Scrooge blush: A $73,000 hike in one year.”

This year’s federal budget — and its eye-watering $78.3-billion deficit — also landed federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne a lump of coal in his stocking.

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“The patron saint of children doesn’t like it when politicians saddle future generations with massive debt bills, so federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is on the naughty list for borrowing tens of billions of dollars every year,” Terrazzano said.

Also earning spots on the naughty list include the Canada Revenue Agency, B.C. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey, Quebec Premier Francois Legault, and Federal Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree — whose decision to continue the expensive Trudeau-era policy of tackling gun crime by disarming law-abiding gun owners ensured him spot in Santa’s bad books.

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Budget watchdog, three provincial premiers in Santa’s good books

It wasn’t all lumps of coal for provincial premiers, with Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe, Nova Scotia’s Tim Houston and Alberta’s Danielle Smith all making their way onto Santa’s nice list.

“Parliamentary Budget Officer Jason Jacques topped the Taxpayer Nice List for his excellent work improving transparency, sounding the alarm on government debt and slicing through the government’s creative accounting,” Terrazzano said.

Houston’s move to cut taxes earned him a spot, as did Moe’s move making Saskatchewan the first carbon tax-free province in the country, saving families hundreds of dollars a year.

Smith’s swift resolution of a recent Alberta teacher’s strike, and not caving to the demands of the Alberta Teachers’ Federation, likewise put her in Santa’s good books.

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“Alberta Premier Danielle Smith made Santa’s good books for saving taxpayers a ton of cookie dough during the teachers’ strike and getting kids back to school,” Terrazzano said.

Also on the nice list are Indigenous activist Hans McCarthy for launching — and winning — a court challenge that will lead to more financial transparency for First Nations band members, and gun owners of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, for peacefully protesting the federal government’s gun grab.

That protest sent local police into a panic, prompting Cape Breton police to shutter their police headquarters and spend $23,000 to deploy dozens of officers to police the peaceful protest.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume

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