Taxpayers in British Columbia are angry at the $30,000 price tag involved in the controversial removal of a historic statue.
The City of Victoria took down a bronze statue of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister and an architect of the country’s residential school system, from the steps of its city hall in August, calling it a gesture of reconciliation toward Indigenous groups that have long called for its removal.
According to a document on the city’s website, the removal has cost just over $30,000 so far.
Policing made up the bulk of the expense at over $12,000. The second biggest expense was the time city staff spent on the project, which came to more than $9,000.
John Treleaven, vice chair of the Grumpy Taxpayers of Greater Victoria, said the $30,000 price tag represents the annual tax payments to the city of around 12 family homes.
“How much less would it have been if it had been done Monday morning at 10 o’clock instead of Saturday morning at 7?,” he said to CTV Vancouver Island.
“The timing of the decision we think cost unnecessary expenses to the taxpayers of Victoria.”
He questioned what the overtime cost was for workers doing the job at the weekend, as opposed to a weekday.
The group had submitted a freedom of information request to the city around the cost of the removal.
The decision to remove the statue prompted protests and counter-protests, with the public given just a few days notice of the plan.
At the time, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said the decision had been a year in the making. She later apologized for the lack of public input.
With files from CTV Vancouver Island
