Disgusting!!!!!!! Feds Welcome Citizens With Made In China Pins, Save 8¢ The Department of Citizenship confirms it’s handing out Made In China maple leaf pins at swearing-in ceremonies for new citizens. The department saved 8¢ apiece by contracting an offshore supplier. “I think it is disgusting,” said Dave Graham, president of Bursan Pins Ltd., a federal supplier since 1967. “The government is always talking about creating jobs, but I see our political officials standing proudly wearing flag pins, and not one of them was made in this country. To me it is just wrong.” Citizenship Canada confirmed it contracts suppliers to provide 200,000 pins a year. The last contract was valued at $29,832 – the equivalent of 6.7¢ apiece. “The winning bid for the pins was a Canadian business,” said Remi Lariviere, a department spokesperson. Officials would not name the company, but acknowledged there was no ban on outsourcing the pins to offshore subcontractors. “Regulations require that procurements over $25,000 be sourced through a competitive process and the regulations were followed,” said Lariviere. Pins are typically subcontracted to offshore suppliers at a low wholesale cost of pennies apiece, said Graham. “I have subcontractors in China as well, but I choose not to use them for our Canadian flag pin. I can land them here, finished and packaged, for close to about 5¢ each. My material cost and labour is around 10 and-a-half cents.” Graham said pins manufactured at his company’s Pickering, Ont. plant sell for 14.5¢ apiece by volume, noting he had not received a contract from the Department of Citizenship since 2012: “I couldn’t even get a call back from them. That’s embarrassing.” “I even raised this with my MP, the late Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, and he told me, ‘Sorry, there’s nothing I could do to help because it’s a world economy now.’ This is our national symbol. This is our country. Why would you welcome people to become citizens of your country with a maple leaf pin made in China? Welcome to the new Canada.” MPs protested in 2005 when the Department of Public Works contracted six million Chinese-made maple leaf pins as parliamentary handouts to visitors. The department subsequently announced it would ensure all pinbacks for MPs and Senators were Canadian-made. As late as 2012 some 300,000 Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pins were also subcontracted to Chinese suppliers through a Canadian company. By Tom Korski
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 17:46:29 +0000
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