And the winner is … envelope please. Farm Credit Canada.
With a Parliament Hill flourish, Canadian Taxpayers Federation director
Walter Robinson awarded FCC a Teddie March 21. The golden pig sculpture
is intended by the conservative special interest group to symbolize
waste or frivolous spending of taxpayer dollars.
It is a spoof on the Hollywood Oscars, named after senior federal civil
servant Ted Weatherill who was fired several years ago after running up
tens of thousands of dollars in expenses on lunches and entertaining.
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This year, there was tough competition – the scheduled airport security
tax, foul-ups in the gun registry system and almost $1 billion in
Industry Canada business loans.
FCC seems like a small player in that crowd but Robinson said the
Regina-based crown corporation scored a Teddie because it will spend
$433,000 to change its name from Farm Credit Corp. to Farm Credit
Canada.
“This included $140,000 to research this single word adjustment and
$293,000 to change logos, signs and even nameplates on doors,” the CTF
said in its citation.
“Sadly, these costs don’t include the bill for changing the signage
outside of FCC headquarters in Regina.
“It could well be the most expensive name change in Canadian history,”
said the Ottawa-based lobby.
In Regina at FCC headquarters, communications director Kirk Fergusson
said staff were taken aback.
“I didn’t even know we had been nominated,” he said March 22. “There
seem to be a lot of bigger people than us on the list.”
He said the cost numbers are correct, but the context is missing.
FCC is a self-sustaining farm lender that does not depend on government
subsidies, he said.
“Taxpayers didn’t pay for this,” said Fergusson. “It comes from our
profits. We feel it was an important investment to make.”
He said the change from FCC to FCC was made because in some provinces,
potential customers were confusing the 42-year-old crown corporation
with provincial lenders because it did not have a federal name.
Besides, Ottawa has decreed that crown corporations should have the
name Canada in their title.
Fergusson said the name change has been as efficient as possible.
“We have been replacing the stationery and other things only when they
run out,” he said. “We didn’t burn all our old stock the day the change
happened.”
