“Previous budgets were illustrated with stock images that sell for [$480 USD] $600 or less. However department staff ordered more elaborate illustrations in a sole-sourced contract to a Toronto photo agency, demanding a picture of a family with construction cranes,” reported Blacklock’s.
The sole-sourced contract for that budget cover was not open to a competitive bidding process. This year, records obtained by Blacklock’s show the department placed a rush order with McCann on Feb. 1 and approved the artwork nine days before the budget was released on March 13.
Last year, as with this year, department staff discussed at length details of the document. It is not clear whether the cost of staff time involved in those discussions was included in price figures.
Last year, those costs including sending a Toronto photographer to Vancouve to take the photo, which was later photoshopped to take out condos, brighten the sky, and put in a construction crane.
“We will have to have discussions about the crane,” the photo agency wrote. “We are working on getting you two different crane options.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/justin-trudeaus-federal-budget-book-gets-170000-cover_2332461.html
This is mind boggling. High level bureaucrats debating which picture of a construction crane should be used on the cover of a budget document that only a handful of people will look at in hard copy. Most people will look at the document online. Our tax dollars at work.