The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the federal and provincial governments to cut wasteful spending as the Parliamentary Budget Officer released a report showing governments are billing taxpayers for about $1 billion to host 13 FIFA World Cup soccer games.

“The federal government and provincial governments are spending $82 million per game when they can’t even cover the expenses in their own budgets,” said Noah Jarvis, CTF Ontario Director. “It’s a bad idea to shell out a billion dollars for a few World Cup games when our governments are in deep debt and everyday taxpayers are struggling with rising prices.”

Canadian taxpayers are being billed $1 billion to host 13 FIFA World Cup games this summer, according to a Parliamentary Budget Officer reportreleased Wednesday.

Federal taxpayers are on the hook for $473 million, according to the report.

British Columbia taxpayers are paying at least $578 million to host seven World Cup games, despite government claims it would only cost between $240 million to $260 million in 2022. The B.C. government still has not released a budget or detailed cost estimate. 

Toronto taxpayers are paying about $380 million to host six World Cup games despite Torontonians being told it’d only cost between $30 million $45 million in 2018.

The Ontario government is also spending $97 million on Toronto’s six games.

Polling shows that Canadians are generally opposed to big spending for this year’s World Cup games.

Half of Ontarians say they are opposed to spending hundreds of millions on the World Cup games while 50 per cent of British Columbians opposed to spending over $500 million on the World Cup games, according to the polling firm Leger.

“Politicians are wasting a million dollars per minute hosting a handful of international soccer games,” said Carson Binda, B.C. Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “FIFA is leaving taxpayers with big pocketbook pain, without the promised economic gain.”