Canadian taxpayers are shelling out millions upon millions of dollars to study Justin Trudeau’s speeches, Canadian dancefloors, and “low-carbon” videogames, with Ottawa’s social sciences research agency spending roughly $1.4 billion this year alone.
An analysis by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation found a slew of unusual projects receiving grants from SSHRC, which funds research and training in the social sciences and humanities.
“Studies about climate comics and the state of Canadian dancefloors don’t sound like studies that matter most to Canadians like the government claims,” said CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano.
“A government that can find $30,987 for temple brewers in ancient Mesopotamia can find savings for Canadian taxpayers.”
Among other grants highlighted by the CTF is $43,693 that went to University of Ottawa professor Kyle Conway to study the “contested meaning” of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s speeches. The study plans to analyze 326 speeches and track Trudeau’s use of terms including “feminist,” “reconciliation,” “protest” and “freedom.”
Taxpayers also funded $78,623 for research into the “state of the dancefloor in Canada,” $88,591 for Arctic climate comics and $79,999 for research on “nasal harmony in Amazonian languages.”
Concordia University professor Antonia Hernández received $99,850 for a project titled A Liquid Frontier: Water Governance through Choral Storytelling. According to the CTF, Hernández previously worked on research surrounding Chile’s water crisis that imagined water having constitutional rights.
Alberta-based professor Kara Stone received another $37,275 for Greenhouse: Low-Carbon Game Jam. Stone previously built a solar-powered server on her apartment balcony to host “low-carbon videogames.”
SSHRC describes its Insight Development Grants as funding early-stage research and experimentation with new research questions, methods and theoretical approaches.
According to the CTF’s analysis of federal grant data, at least 50 research projects that were awarded funding in 2026 focused on subjects in other countries, costing taxpayers nearly $3.9 million.
Those included $93,467 to create a digital edition of a 1908 book about Sri Lankan art and $65,833 to study Western-style sweets in “modern Japan and beyond.”
“The SSHRC is little more than a subsidy for academics to work on their pet projects that nobody else will read,” Terrazzano said.
“Just because nobody will voluntarily pay to study the birth, life and death of a grocery cart, that doesn’t mean taxpayers should be forced to.”
The criticism comes as the CTF calls on Ottawa to slash roughly $60 billion in annual spending as part of its pre-budget recommendations.
Its proposals include ending taxpayer support for CBC and the Senate, cutting federal bureaucracy costs and reducing salaries and benefits for federal politicians to 2020 levels.
“The massive accumulation of debt is due to a government spending problem, not a revenue problem,” the CTF said.