Article content

A federal government office on Queen Street wanted big TVs, and the BlackBerries were soon humming with urgent messages.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, in the CD Howe Building, decided just before the end of the last fiscal year to buy big TVs. And someone whose identity is secret did an Access to Information Act search of the details. Those details are now public.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or How many government workers does it take to buy a TV? About 39 public servants and 300 emails Back to video

The price isn’t a big surprise: About $40,000 for the 65-inch TVs (the number of TVs is a secret), and $65,000 to install them on 11 floors of the building at 235 Queen, with new LAN connections.

But this required written input from at least 39 public servants, not counting everyone who was CC’d, and more than 300 emails.

The end-of-March time crunch added some urgency, and some of the emails are invoices and inquiries from a construction company that did the installing.

But most are emails are from within ISED (formerly Industry Canada) and Shared Services Canada. They show how complicated the flow of information can become when the government wants to buy some TVs.