The B.C. government’s paying of public servants who volunteered at the 2010 Winter Olympics was one of the past year’s worst examples of government waste, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

The CTF announced today (March 10) that these paid volunteers had been nominated for its 12th annual spoof awards in the provincial category.

In a backgrounder, the taxpayers’ group stated:

This heart-warming story is nominated for the 241 selfless public servants at the Vancouver Olympic Games who volunteered their time in exchange for money. Their paid-volunteerism truly touched Canadians with their sacrifices, especially those real volunteers not working for the government and who were not paid for giving their time. Taxpayers should be filled with hope that the obviously noncritical jobs that these volunteers were filling outside of the Olympics are unnecessary and can be eliminated. Pay it forward Mister Premier.

According to the CTF, the paid volunteers were nominated for “Best use of paid extras” and the cost was “Priceless”.

Nova Scotia’s MLAs ended up winning the Teddy Waste Award in the provincial category for their “outrageous” expense claims.

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