Article content

OTTAWA — The federal government has been given a dubious award for spending millions of tax dollars to promote a job grant that doesn’t yet exist.

Employment and Social Development Canada was named Wednesday as recipient of the 16th annual Teddy Award for wasteful federal spending.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Top wasteful spending award goes to Tory government for money spent on non-existent jobs program Back to video

The pig-shaped awards are handed out annually by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation to people and government agencies that it deems as the worst wasters of tax dollars.

“If you jumped from your sofa during the Stanley Cup playoffs in 2013 to alert your unemployed teenager about the fabulous new $15,000 Canada Jobs Grant, you were in for a sad surprise,” said CTF federal director Gregory Thomas.

“Despite $2.5 million in taxpayer-funded advertising … the Canada Jobs Grant didn’t exist, and still doesn’t.”

Former Toronto Pan Am Games CEO Ian Troop won the provincial award for getting a salary of over $550,000 while overseeing an event that is $1.1 billion over budget.