Photo by Photo Submitted
WASTED TAXPAYERS’ MONEY? – An influential Instagram blogger posted this photo at the ‘Gold Rush 2’ event in Dawson City on Aug. 23, 2019. The post is marked as sponsored content, meaning she was most likely paid to attend the event.
The Yukon’s Department of Tourism has been declared award-winning in wasted funds by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The Yukon’s Department of Tourism has been declared award-winning in wasted funds by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The department was awarded the Provincial Teddy Award for government waste at the 22nd annual Teddy Waste Awards in Ottawa.
The award is intended to honour “the best of the worst in government waste uncovered in the past year,” according to a statement released this week.
The Yukon was awarded for a “Gold Rush 2” campaign that took place in Dawson City last August.
The taxpayers federation says the Yukon Department of Tourism dedicated $139,000 toward the event, which involved “putting gold in a creek and flying in social media influencers to look for it.”
Gold Rush 2 was initially intended to be funded by private money, and a crowdfunding page was set up in hopes of raising $100,000.
“In 1896 the Klondike Gold Rush put the Yukon on the map. Now, in 2019, we’re making modern day history by creating a brand new gold rush—which we’ve put our creative brains together to name, wait for it, Gold Rush 2,” the crowdfunding page said.
“All we need now is your help to buy that sweet, sweet gold so we can drop it in the creeks of the Yukon on August 20th.”
The event was self-described as “a brand new gold rush, in hopes it will drive many of you up to our beautiful territory–– pan-in-hand.”
Contributors to the event were invited to pan for gold in Dawson City, and a range of other perks were offered to the largest backers.
Those who gave more than $250 were offered museum passes, Diamond Tooth Gerties passes and a round of Dawson City nine-hole golf.
Contributors who gave more than $1,000 were offered the aforementioned passes, as well as airfare and two nights at the downtown hotel.
The crowdsourcing effort failed to make its goal, and only raised $4,528. This was used to purchase 3.5 ounces of gold to put in the creek, according to the CTF.
“The Yukon government then stepped in with taxpayer money to cover the rest of the plan to pay for three social media influencers and one reporter to document the sparsely-attended event,” the CTF said in its release.
On Thursday, the first day of the spring sitting of the legislature, interim Yukon Party Leader Stacey Hassard filed two motions acknowledging the waste award.
His second motion urges the government to “provide a detailed accounting of how much money went out to territory consultants, public relations reps, and photographers to support their decision to spend taxpayers’ money to pay Instagram celebrities to fly to Yukon, go horseback riding, and pan for gold.”
This morning, the Star made a request for comment to the Department of Tourism.
No one provided a response by this afternoon’s press time.
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Comments (17)
Up 13 Down 2
Luci on Mar 25, 2020 at 12:00 pm
I was there with a couple friends and we really enjoyed that day. It was very interesting and a lot of fun. For sure that thing will bring more tourists in the Yukon. So for example we will come back definitely. And we are from different countries. (Canada, Switzerland and Germany) No question we did talk with our families and friends and the Companies we work for about this great event and not one person said anything bad. Everybody was very interested and we think some of them will be in Dawson this next time.
Up 11 Down 0
Sylvia Burkhard on Mar 11, 2020 at 9:14 am
Absolutely there has been way more waste of $$ than Gold Rush 2 however I doubt if the figure provided includes the contract fees for the folks from Vancouver who thought this up. The private businesses (there are not many of us) weren't impressed. Personally my big issue was the crowd funding, I thought it was really tacky and wasn't going to fly. Second, you can't put gold in just any of the creeks of the Klondike, there is one place and that is Claim 6, KVA's free claim. Third, it didn't attract any new folks, no one came up specifically for this unless it was the folks who started it.
For something poorly planned, always last minute these days, there was a good crowd, however a pretty good portion of them was locals which is fine, the locals are the last people Tourism thinks about nowadays. Numbers, numbers and more numbers is all Tourism thinks about, come early and stay late, meanwhile there is nothing for the folks who do show up here early or later in the season, granted there are those who do specifically come in the off season. How about we have an old fashioned scavenger hunt for some gold, folks get to use their noodles, local businesses can be part of it and gold( in some form) doesn't have to go in a specific place. I think people come up here to get the flavour of bygone Gold Rush days and we are getting rid of that willy nilly. Why don't we dial back the digital crap and give folks a laid back visit. Also I think the event was a lot of fun, why not just take $15k and purchase gold and put it in the creek and have a big gold panning day on Discovery days, after all that is what it celebrates without the Gold Rush 2 style hype.
Up 39 Down 0
Mad Trapper of Riverdale on Mar 11, 2020 at 7:14 am
Well deserved award. That’s what you get for using an out of town advertising agency with no Yukon office and not listening to the local tourism professionals who advised against this fiasco. Arrogance. It’s too bad most of the $139K went to agency fees and not the Yukon.
Up 3 Down 32
iBrian on Mar 10, 2020 at 10:36 am
Well, to be honest.
There's a lot of other spending that went on, I could think of as a larger waste of money.
At least this did hit a Target Market that Yukon’s tourism hadn’t tapped yet.
So, just maybe it wasn’t measure-able in instant returns.
With This Corona flu, won’t know this year either.
But, I would argue that other spending was way worse. It’s a $139,000.00
It’s really not that bad, all things considered.
And it’s the Yukon, most open sky events seem sparsely attended. That’s why the hype, that’s why the “Not Local” Instagram Celebrities were brought in, to hit millions of people for only $139,000.00. Now that’s affordable advertising.
Up 10 Down 26
Moose on Mar 9, 2020 at 9:04 pm
@JC You keep telling yourself that. When you decide to look at real stats both territorially and federally you will see that Conservatives add far more debt each time they are in power. Not sure where the silly myth comes from that conservatives are good with money.
Up 39 Down 2
Gullible Cretin on Mar 9, 2020 at 6:26 pm
It would be laughable if it were not so pathetic. These children are not ‘influencers’ , they are self-promoters happy to fleece Yukon taxpayers and accept free, all-expenses-paid holidays for absolutely no return to anyone but themselves . “Yukon , Larger than Life and Easily Duped”.
Up 35 Down 2
Anton on Mar 9, 2020 at 5:21 pm
Another dept. that needs a 'Public Inquiry' or forensic audit into it's operations and procedures is The Yukon Housing Corporation for a real eye-opener.
Up 15 Down 8
JC on Mar 9, 2020 at 4:50 pm
Woodcutter, at least the PPC rally was informative.
Up 28 Down 7
Resident on Mar 9, 2020 at 2:32 pm
@JC
The Yukon Party built two hospitals without a business case and were chastised by the Auditor General for it. This isn't a partisan problem, it's a Yukon problem.
Up 27 Down 3
stephen on Mar 9, 2020 at 12:34 pm
Stop pandering to these stupid social influence peddlers. Let them work for a living. They are just a bunch of leaches and that's not how to spend tax payers money.
Up 39 Down 2
Anie on Mar 9, 2020 at 11:29 am
As soon as one fuzzy wuzzy moves on, this department needs to hire someone with analytical skills to stop dumb ideas like this in their tracks. Apart from the obvious stupidity, they were hoping to encourage tourists by suggesting there is gold in the creeks and that any fool can access it. Tourism dept has always had too much independence from the usual financial restraints.
Up 2 Down 33
Brian on Mar 9, 2020 at 9:20 am
I thought it was a good idea. They do similar style events around the world to promote their resources. It’s a fun event and I am sure everyone enjoyed the day.
Your better off to Do something, and see it not be a success, then do Nothing and complain that nothing ever gets done.
Up 27 Down 3
YukonMax on Mar 9, 2020 at 7:00 am
Who's riding is this? Wink, Wink!
Up 40 Down 11
Woodcutter on Mar 7, 2020 at 9:41 am
Sparsely attended even....lol
Makes me think of the Peoples Party of Canada's rally.
Up 65 Down 4
Groucho d'North on Mar 7, 2020 at 8:49 am
I'm not sure if the wizards at Tourism are targeting the demographic that will translate into increased visitors to the territory. Our poor cell phone coverage alone is a disincentive for these folks.
Sure they might be digital influencers to the social media crowd, but do they have the disposable income to travel here for a vacation?
Up 67 Down 6
My Opinion on Mar 7, 2020 at 2:54 am
OMG I have nothing else to say. Who is in charge?
Up 60 Down 17
JC on Mar 6, 2020 at 5:11 pm
But hey, it's what Liberals do. And you voted them in. The Llberals motto: "Money was meant to be spent, not hoarded. To be spent foolishly, not wisely".