Canada’s heritage minister blew the budget on a Hollywood party for a TV show that barely made it to a third season.

The federal government spent nearly $10,000 on a premier party for the TV show Mary Kills People at the Canadian consulate in Los Angeles in 2017, according to documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

The money for the shindig was drawn from the Mission Cultural Fund via the department of Global Affairs, Canada’s foreign affairs service.

“Hollywood is famous for parties, but it’s not clear why Canadian taxpayers should be forced to subsidize them,” said Aaron Wudrick, Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “If politicians want to hobnob in Los Angeles, they should do it on their own dime.”

The show focused on an emergency room doctor who moonlights as an “underground angel of death,” offering euthanasia services. The show aired on Global and made a brief appearance on the Lifetime network, but the American network dropped it before the third season aired.

In the documents obtained by the Taxpayers Federation, federal bureaucrats listed money spent on the April 20, 2017 reception under the title of: trade facilitation.

Mélanie Joly, the former heritage minister who now serves as the economic development minister, was at the reception during a visit to L.A. on government business, though the reception did not show up on the trip’s agenda released by the department at the time.

The party included the Consul General at the time, James Villeneuve, eOne Television executives Jocelyn Hamilton and John Morayniss, then-Lifetime executive Meghan Hooper White, and the main actors on the show, all of whom posed with Joly for multiple group photos.

The original party budget was $7,500, but the final bill was nearly $10,000. 

At the time, Joly billed taxpayers $4,966 for the trip, which included a side trip to San Francisco to visit the offices of Twitter and Facebook.

The money for Joly’s Hollywood party came from the Mission Cultural Fund, which is the same fund the government tapped to fly a Canadian chef to India to cook Indian food with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s entourage in 2018.

“This is more proof that the Mission Cultural Fund is nothing more than a pot of money the government uses to waste money outside our borders,” said Wudrick.

“It’s well past time the government abolished this slush fund and stopped blowing scarce taxpayer dollars on frivolous events that don’t improve the lives of Canadians in any way, shape or form.”

The Department of Global Affairs blows through its Mission Cultural Fund budget and overspends by millions of dollars every year.

The fund was overbudget by more than $6 million after three years of operation.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation reached out to the L.A. consulate and Global Affairs about the reception. As of publication, they have yet to respond.