Absurd federal “research” grants burn over $1 billion yearly

A taxpayers’ advocacy group is raising the alarm over federal research grants that it says are funding “bizarre and irrelevant academic studies.”

Source: Wikimedia Commons

A taxpayers’ advocacy group is raising the alarm over federal research grants that it says are funding “bizarre and irrelevant academic studies.”

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) says more than $1 billion in annual spending by the federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) is supporting projects unlikely to reflect the government’s stated goal of funding research “on the issues that matter most to Canadians.”

Among the grants flagged by the CTF is $105,000 for a study examining the life cycle of a grocery cart.

The project, led by Kate Elliot of Simon Fraser University, is titled “Cart-ography: tracking the birth, life and death of an urban grocery cart, from work product to work tool.” According to the university’s website, the work explores how grocery carts are designed, assembled, used and repurposed. Seven years after the funding was awarded, the report has not yet been completed.

Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the CTF, called it a misuse of taxpayer funds. “The government could have given Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys a couple pepperoni sticks for a report about grocery carts rather than billing taxpayers six figures,” he said.

Another SSHRC-funded study, awarded $20,000 in 202,2 focuses on the gender politics of Peruvian rock music. Led by Fabiola Bazo at the University of British Columbia, the research is informed by feminist and queer theory and presents music as an extension of sensual practices and power dynamics. Bazo has stated her research findings cannot be communicated in written form alone and will be presented through a curated exhibition.

In 2018, $94,000 was granted to a study titled “Rhetoric of the selfie,” which explores online self-representation, including fat fashion on Instagram and “social justice selfies.” The lead researcher, Aimée Morrison of the University of Waterloo, previously received $58,000 from SSHRC in 2011. In a past interview, Morrison described her academic work by saying, “Basically, I fart around on the internet for most of my teaching and research.”

In 2019, taxpayers paid $21,000 for a project called “We Are All Astronauts,” led by Sarah Smith of Carleton University and Kirsty Robertson of Western University. The study investigates speculative futures such as ecotopias and dystopias. The CTF noted that while no formal report could be located, the researchers did co-curate a 2025 exhibition at Carleton University that explored responses to climate change.

CTF’s Terrazzano said these projects reflect a broader trend of academic indulgence. “Researchers are getting buckets of cash from taxpayers and they still can’t get their homework done,” he said. “The SSHRC seems to be little more than a slush fund so academics can work on their pet projects that nobody reads.”

The SSHRC’s funding exists in addition to the federal government’s $17-billion Canada Social Transfer to provinces, which is designated for social assistance, post-secondary education and early learning. It also comes on top of provincial spending in the sector, such as Alberta’s $6.6 billion annual budget for advanced education.

The CTF argues that, in a time of fiscal restraint, SSHRC funding should be redirected toward research that has a clearer benefit to Canadian taxpayers.