Subhead:Federal departments have spent $13 million on junk, with millions more hidden away behind bureaucrats’ inability to confirm what they were wasting taxpayers’ money on.#
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Flying saucers, crystal paperweights and branded apples. No, this isn’t the world’s saddest office party — it’s your federal government’s idea of “outreach.”
Grab your Canada Revenue Agency-branded stress ball, you’ll need it for this one.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation broke this story after digging through more than 900 pages of documents tabled in Parliament under order paper question Q-128, filed by Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner.
Those records show federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations spent about $13 million on promotional merchandise since January 2022.
The Privy Council told every department to itemize “novelties, mementoes, gifts and other giveaways used to promote a program or initiative.” What came back reads like a taxpayer-funded novelty-catalogue confession.
Feds spend $13 million on branded and promotional merchandise since 2022.
Here’s a taste of what your tax dollars pay for:
The government spent $207,000 on hats, $607,000 on bags, $51,800 on socks and $11,900 on stress balls.
Export Development Canada spent $4,100 on climate…
— Franco Terrazzano (@franco_nomics) October 28, 2025
We’re talking bamboo toothbrushes, beeswax wraps, temporary tattoos, maple candy, even Yukon soap. If it can be silk-screened, the feds bought it. If it can’t, they bought it anyway and called it “engagement.”
The biggest spender? The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which blew roughly $4 million, then refused to say on what.
