OTTAWA — Several sketchy art purchases have a taxpayers’ watchdog group accusing a government department of colouring outside the lines.
Records unearthed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) show Global Affairs Canada spent over $527,000 on art over the last two years — with many purchases suggesting end-of-fiscal-year spending sprees.
Documents obtained via an access-to-information request highlight 158 art pieces purchased by Global Affairs in 2023 and 2024, all listed for “display at Canada’s embassies, high commissions, consulates and official residences.”
Fees paid to purchase the art varies wildly, ranging from $175 for pencil drawings by Inuit carver Alasuaq Sharky to $24,999 for a tapestry by Calgary-based textile artist Simone Elizabeth Saunders. That amount, the highest price paid in the released documents, was also paid to purchase a photograph by Toronto-based sculptor Esmaa Mohamoud on March 31, 2023.
“All this artwork sure sounds nice, it’s too bad the taxpayers paying for it will never get to see it because it’s in far-flung countries for fat cat bureaucrats to stare at,” CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano told the Toronto Sun.
“Every March, taxpayers are forced to watch a bad episode of bureaucrats gone wild. Instead of wasting money on March madness spending sprees, the government should be cutting spending and returning this money to taxpayers.”
The Mohamoud photograph was one of 32 pieces of art purchased by Global Affairs officials on the last day of March 2023 — the end of the federal government’s fiscal year.
Other high-ticket art purchased that day included $990 each for three stoneware and African glass bead pieces by Quebec artist Dominique Sirois, $20,250 for a fabric-art piece by Ontario artist Mary Anne Barkhouse and $3,500 for work by Dene artist Vashti Etzel, described as a mixed-media piece of cowhide, dyed fox fur, Swarovski crystals, caribou hair and 24-karat gold.
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
Seventy-one pieces of art, totalling $291,000, were purchased on Feb. 9, 2024.
Other purchases in 2024 included $19,800 for an oil painting by Emmanuel Osahor, $18,000 for an acrylic-on-canvas piece by painter Shawn Hunt and $9,900 for a mixed-media piece made out of LEGO blocks by Matt Donovan.
This art expenditure is separate from the millions of dollars spent by government bureaucrats — including Global Affairs Canada — to rent art from the Canada Council of the Art’s federal art bank, a repository of more than 17,000 pieces of Canadian artwork for federal bureaucrats to hang in their offices.
Reports in the Toronto Sun last year revealed federal departments spent $7,808,827 to borrow art from the Ottawa-based Crown corporation between January 2016 and July 2024 — an average of $76,000 per month.
bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume