STUPID STATUS SNAGGED

Free Crack-Pipe Program Recognized

Sometimes it's enough of an honour just being nominated. The free
crack-pipe program run by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority was a
runner-up in the Canadian Taxpayers Federation's Teddy awards, which were
presented yesterday.

The seventh annual spoof of the Oscars targets irresponsible and
extravagant government spending.

'SO MUCH DEMAND'

"With so much demand put upon the health-care system, the CTF questions to
this day why the health authority is handing out free crack pipes," said
Adrienne Batra, Manitoba director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

The awards are named for Ted Weatherill, a former bureaucrat who was fired
in 1999 over bloated expense accounts he ran up as head of the Canada
Labour Relations Board.

The crack-pipe program was one of four nominees in the municipal government
category. The "winner" was Toronto City Hall, which last year spent
$853,000 on emergency shelter beds for homeless people that were never used.

Dr. Margaret Fast, the medical officer of health with the WRHA, said she
took no offence to being accused of wasting taxpayer dollars with the
crack-pipe program.

"It reminds me of some of the responses and opinions voiced several decades
ago when we started providing a needle-exchange program," Fast said.

"There was much the same kind of controversy and lack of appreciation for
what the program was all about."

The Winnipeg Sun first reported in August the WRHA was handing out kits to
addicts with sores and burns on their lips in an effort to stop the spread
of HIV and hepatitis C. The kits include glass tube crack pipes.

Fast said up to 25 kits are distributed each night. They cost about $2 each.

Andre Ouellet, former head of Canada Post and a lifelong veteran of Liberal
politics, was given the lifetime Teddy award yesterday for what the
federation called a career of frivolous spending of taxpayer money.

Lucie McClung, head of the Canadian prison system, won the federal award
for collecting $142,000 in travel expenses between 2001 and 2003.

The government of Saskatchewan got the provincial award for a ill-fated
project to establish a potato industry which ended up costing $36 million.

Previous Manitoba winners include the so-called $1-million toilet on the
Esplanade Riel and the Manitoba Arts Council, which provided $5,000 for a
display of mouse droppings and pubic hair.