Federal health minister’s Twitter account is run using taxpayer dollars

OTTAWA, ON. (NEWS 1130) – There is some anger and a lot of questions after word surfaced it costs taxpayers $100,000 just to run the federal health minister’s Twitter account.

“I think the government has some explaining to do here,” says Aaron Wudrick with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, who is outraged to learn of the hefty bill that comes with a single minister’s social media account.

There are reports the cost covers the salaries and overtime for the 1.5 staff members who operate the account and deal with the heavy bureaucratic approval process just to send out a single tweet.

Since the account was launched in August, it has averaged only 50 tweets in a month, which is less than twice a day. “It just reinforces all the worst stereotypes of government. They have found a way to make something so simple in which it costs very little, instead it costs taxpayers a lot of money.”

Wudrick thinks there is an easier way to handle the account. “It takes weeks of planning for a tweet, I mean, this is the problem,” he exclaims. “They’re not viewing it as a spontaneous way to share pre-existing information, they’re spending hours and hours of time planning these tweets out and that is what is jacking up the cost.”

The department is defending itself, saying this is a low-cost way of handling the account and pointing out they have used existing communications staff who mainly work during normal business hours.

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