Ancient temple brewers, Arctic climate comics, low-carbon videogames and Justin Trudeau’s speeches: These are among the research topics the government is funding this year, according to a Canadian Taxpayers Federation analysis of federal grant data.

“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 Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “A government that can find $30,987 for temple brewers in ancient Mesopotamia can find savings for Canadian taxpayers.”

The federal government’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council will cost taxpayers $1.4 billion this year, according to the Main Estimates. The SSHRC “supports research and research training in the social sciences and humanities.”

The government says SSHRC-funded research provides “insights on the issues that matter most to Canadians.” However, many of the research topics are unlikely to resonate with most Canadians.

For example, this year the SSHRC gave Concordia University professor Antonia Hernández $99,850 for a study called A Liquid Frontier: Water Governance through Choral Storytelling. 

Hernández’s previous research on Chile’s water crisis imagined water having constitutional rights and included plans for a manifesto and fictional treatise. Co-applicant for this year’s SSHRC grant, Mark Sussman, is a theatre professor who specializes in puppetry.

The SSHRC gave Alberta-based professor Kara Stone $37,275 for a study called Greenhouse: Low-Carbon Game Jam. 

Stone previously built a solar-powered server on her apartment balcony to host “low-carbon videogames.” The server can go offline in the “often dark and cloudy climate of Canada,” but Stone isn’t worried. 

“Full access to every user is such a capitalist mindset,” Stone told The Guardian.

The federal research council gave Ottawa-based professor Kyle Conway $43,693 to study the “contested meaning” of former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s speeches. Conway will analyze 326 Trudeau speeches, tracking how the former prime minister used terms including “feminist,” “reconciliation,” “protest” and “freedom.”

The SSHRC also spent $78,623 studying the “state of the dancefloor in Canada,” $79,999 on “nasal harmony in Amazonian languages” and $88,591 studying Arctic climate comics. 

The SSHRC also gave Lisa Coulthard of the University of British Columbia $70,529 to study the “sounds of horror cinema.” The SSHRC has given Coulthard four other grants in the past, according to UBC’s website. 

Though the government says SSHRC-funded research provides “insights on the issues that matter most to Canadians,” taxpayers paid for at least 50 research projects focused on topics in other countries. Those grants cost taxpayers nearly $3.9 million. 

The projects include $93,467 to create a digital edition of a 1908 book about Sri Lankan art, $65,833 to study Western-style sweets in “modern Japan and beyond” and $30,987 for a study on “struggling temple brewers in sixth century BCE Mesopotamia.” 

“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 SSHRC’s $1.4 billion is on top of the $18 billion the federal government sends to the provinces through the Canada Social Transfer every year. The CST is the federal transfer to the provinces for “post-secondary education, social assistance and social services, and early childhood development and early learning and childcare.”

It’s also on top of what provincial governments spend on post-secondary education themselves. For example, the Alberta government will spend about $7 billion on advanced and post-secondary education this year.

The SSHRC has been funding unusual and irrelevant research for years. 

It previously spent $105,000 examining the “birth, life and death” of a grocery cart, $20,000 on a study called Gender politics in Peruvian rock music and  $17,500 on a study about “casual sex among young adults living in Jasper.”