Where’s the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) when you need it?
Like the cops, they never seem to be around!
Consider those five million bottles of “Tylenot” children’s medication Alberta’s United Conservative Party (UCP) government paid a Turkish pharmaceutical company last year at least $75 million to produce in an obviously politically motivated effort to own the Libs in Ottawa.
The Globe and Mail confirmed this week that fewer than 5,000 bottles of the oddball kids’ pain remedy Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government ordered from Atabay Pharmaceuticals and Fine Chemicals Inc. of Istanbul during the brief national shortage of children’s ibuprofen and acetaminophen in December ever showed up in Alberta pharmacies.
After weeks of journalists hounding Alberta Health Services (AHS) for confirmation of a report that that only 4,700 bottles of the stuff made it to drugstore shelves, AHS finally fessed up that it was so, the Globe reported.
This shows the Smith Government’s much-touted purchase, the Globe explained, was “costly and ineffective,” which is something of an understatement for a shipment of medicine, which nobody wants, that cost almost $16,000 per bottle that actually made it to a drugstore shelf.
The price tag on the bottles was about $12, which even in Conservative accounting represents a loss.
For her part, Premier Smith continues to defend the expensive stunt as the right thing to do.
“We stand by the decision made last fall to act and obtain much-needed supply to support families and feel confident that if we find ourselves in a shortage again, Alberta will be prepared,” she said in a statement – although the next shortage Alberta finds itself in had better happen fairly soon, since all the bottles will reach their dump-by date in 2025 and 2026.
UCP spokespeople also talked about selling the medication to other provinces. But no one wants it.
So you’d think, wouldn’t you, that Canada’s self-described “non-partisan tax watchdog” would be all over that like white on rice?
Instead? Nothing … nada. All we can hear from the CTF’s Regina headquarters is unseasonal sound of crickets chirping.
The story’s been in the news for a year. But if you type “Atabay Pharmaceuticals” into the CTF website’s search engine, all it says is “no articles found.”
The CTF has no trouble putting out news releases. In the past three days alone, the group has published news releases calling for an end to the carbon tax on home heating in Ontario, praising Canada’s Conservative premiers for opposing “Trudeau’s divisive carbon tax policies,” complaining about the federal fiscal update, and touting a poll that says a lot of Atlantic Canadians don’t like the carbon tax on home heating fuel either.
Yet for some reason, the CTF remains uninterested in what surely ought to be a major government spending scandal.
Funny, that. As National Observer journalist Max Fawcett observed on social media, “If a progressive government had done this the Canadian Taxpayers Federation would still be talking about it in 2073.”
If the CTF were to raise the issue, its operatives might ask who got the commission for this purchase, and how big it was. They could wonder if Atabay Pharmaceuticals got the deal because the company was partly owned by a relative of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, who was endorsed by UCP fave Donald Trump, a former U.S. president. And they could also inquire into why the Smith Government ignored Health Canada’s accurate assurance that the shortage would be quickly remedied.
Well, hope springs eternal. Maybe the CTF will send out a release assailing the UCP government today, or tomorrow.
As someone said:
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time …
Group assails screening of ‘Bearing Witness’ at Alberta Legislature
Last night, a group of about 50 progressive Jews and their allies gathered on Violet King Henry Plaza in Edmonton to protest the screening at the Legislature of Bearing Witness, a film created by the Israeli armed forces that shows graphic video images of the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
The group also called for an enduring ceasefire in Gaza now.
“As Jews, we know that our fate is bound up with the fate of the Palestinian people, and of all colonized and oppressed peoples,” said Independent Jewish Voices of Edmonton, a group that supports Palestinian human rights, in a statement. “None of us are free until all of us are free. None of us are safe until all of us are safe. Only justice can bring peace.”
The Alberta Speaker’s Office extended invitations to MLAs and select media for a screening of the video in partnership with the Consulate of Israel. “The film consists solely of footage from the October 7 Palestinian militant attack on Israel, edited by the Israeli military’s communications department,” IJV said. “The only purpose the 45-minute film is to incite a visceral reaction from viewers and build support for Israel’s assault on Gaza.”
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