The October federal election is going to cost taxpayers a lot more than originally planned.
Elections Canada says the initial budget was about $375 million to operate a standard election.
Spokesperson John Enright says the average campaign period is 37 days, but this time around it was 78 days. That’s one of the longest elections in Canadian history.
“It won’t mean twice the cost because most of our hard costs are incurred during the election period itself,” he says. “And it is staff costs. Staff and rent is really where the big numbers are.”
Enright says about 2,000 people are still waiting to be paid, adding cheques will be mailed out this week.
One of the people waiting to get paid is a woman from Stanley Mission.
Theresa McLeod says she submitted her paperwork and after waiting several weeks called to find out that her time sheet was lost.
Enright says they want to pay people before Christmas.