Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Mr. Colossal Fossil Goes Green. Canadians See Red

Clearly not having embarrassed us enough by winning the Colossal Fossil award at Copenhagen, our new and improved "go green" dictator is pulling out all the stops to make Canada look like complete idiots for the G8 and G20.

The international media is having a ball lampooning us and I'm sure many in the foreign press are looking forward to visiting "fake lake" just so they can share our incompetence with their readers.

And leaders of other countries will be able to use this as a benchmark for decades. "We may waste taxpayer's money, but remember Canada in 2010?" They'll be able to get away with anything.

Besides learning that they spent 19 million dollars on flowers and dancers:

Conservative ministers argue the government would be remiss if it didn’t try to sell Muskoka as a tourist destination to the 3,000-odd international journalists trapped covering the summits from Toronto. True, but do the math — for the cost of the fake lake, the government could have given every foreign journalist a free weekend in the real Muskoka.

But that’s not the end of fiscal follies summit-style. Down the hall from Loonie Lake in the Toronto media centre, taxpayers are being hit up yet again, this time for something called “The Living Wall.” Summit organizers are contracting a massive wall of pre-cultivated plants that come with their own irrigation system.

This, we are told in government documents, will be the G20 summit’s “signature environmental project.” ... (Speaking of legacy, Toronto taxpayers will have to take care of this vertical flowerbed for the next century). How much The Living Wall will end up costing Canadian taxpayers is anyone’s guess. With two weeks to go before the structure has to be in full bloom, the summit management office sent us a note saying it still had no cost estimates for the project. Likely translation: The bill for this thing is too outrageous for publication.

I hope this fake lake has a fake bridge so that we can all jump off it.
... taxpayers are shelling out $207,000 for 15 of what have to be the world’s most expensive solar lights to illuminate the pathways at Deerhurst Resort, where the eight leaders are staying for one night. While it is hard to believe this five-star resort had no path lights of its own, the federal contract assures us “this signature environmental project will contribute to the overall greening of the G8 summit.” And when the leaders have left the next day, the contractors have to dismantle the six-metre lights, and reinstall them somewhere in the nearby town of Huntsville. Your tax dollars at work over and over.

From Colossal Fossil to Colossal Idiot. I'm so proud.

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