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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Flaherty photo op in city cost pretty penny
(ROYAL CANADIAN MINT PHOTO)
OTTAWA -- A penny for your thoughts on the penny? More like 5.6 million of them.
The federal government and Royal Canadian Mint spent about $56,000 to have Finance Minister Jim Flaherty stamp the final Canadian penny produced for circulation during a news conference in May at the mint in Winnipeg, new documents and data show.
The Conservative government announced in the March federal budget it was ending production of the penny because it actually cost 1.6 cents to mint each of the one-cent coins, due to rising metal, labour and other manufacturing costs.
Information obtained by Postmedia News, including documents issued under access to information, shows stamping the final penny at a news conference ultimately cost around 5.6 million times the coin's monetary value.
Flaherty and his director of communications spent the sum of 663,500 pennies ($6,635) on flights, accommodation, meals and incidentals for a one-day trip to the mint's production facility in Winnipeg for the ceremonial final coin stamp on May 4, 2012, according to the documents.
The Royal Canadian Mint, a federal for-profit Crown corporation, spent the equivalent of approximately five million pennies ($50,000) to host the event, which drew significant media attention and public interest; the cost included flying in mint CEO Ian Bennett, who is based in Ottawa.
The final tab for Finance Canada, which was routine by government travel standards, includes the sum of about 582,900 pennies ($5,829) spent on business- and economy-class flights aboard Air Canada for Flaherty and economy-class airfare for his communications director.
Another $537 was spent on hotel rooms for the minister and his aide at the Fairmont Winnipeg, while about $269 was billed for ground transportation, meals and incidentals.
The mint didn't provide a specific breakdown of its $50,000 in expenses, although it included media outreach, logistics, audio/visual equipment and minimal travel, said mint spokeswoman Christine Aquino.
She argued the mint's spending on the event didn't cost taxpayers a penny because the Crown corporation generates its own profits by producing coins for more than a dozen countries as well as collector coins.
-- Postmedia News
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 11, 2012 A4
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