Canada’s most exclusive gift store open only to political elite

Back in the bad old days of the Cold War, the Soviet Union was run by an elite ruling class known as the nomenklatura.

This tiny percentage of Soviets — politburo members, military officers and key bureaucrats in every facet of the government, military and industry — had enormous privileges in the Communist Party's so-called workers' paradise.

Senior members of the nomenklatura had their own traffic lanes, their children got spots at the best universities and first crack at good jobs, and their families were allowed the exclusive right to shop at special stores.

While their comrades were lining up at state outlets on the rumour there was a fresh supply of toilet paper, the nomenklatura was browsing for displays of Western goods such as colour TVs and blue jeans that were unattainable for their fellow citizens.

It turned out the Revolution of 1917 may have wiped out the Russian aristocracy but communists managed to reinvent it. The nomenklatura system still exists in North Korea and even the nominally communist People's Republic of China, where being a senior party member gets you all sorts of perks.

Sure, capitalist society has its own privileged class, but at least it's solidly grounded on the principle of having lots and lots of money. We don't tolerate that in our public servants, right?

Well...

While Ottawa's elite don't get dedicated traffic lanes, some do get to shop at an official store the rest of us taxpayers will find inaccessible.

The Canadian Press reports the federal government operates something called the Gift Bank, which carries high-end souvenirs for exclusive acquisition by the top political and public service ranks.

A short blurb on the Department of Canadian Heritage describes it this way:

"The Program is responsible for providing items of Canadian craft for presentation on behalf of the Government of Canada by the Governor General, members of the Canadian Ministry and deputy ministers to their respective foreign counterparts.

"The Gift Bank also ensures that official gifts are distinctively Canadian. Appropriate gifts include contemporary arts and crafts or items representative of Canadian culture, arts, and cultural products or Canadian manufacturing. The Gift Bank can provide advice on appropriate types of gifts."

So not only is it an exclusive story, its clerks apparently will act as personal shoppers.

According to CP, the store's clientele includes the heads of Crown corporations and even Supreme Court justices. It's open to anyone who doesn't want to show up empty-handed on a trip abroad or is scheduled to entertain a visiting foreign dignitary.

The Gift Bank has more than 1,000 items, from silver cuff links and pen sets to Inuit soapstone carvings and other artwork from every province and territory.

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No gift can cost more than $500 and the current inventory is valued at about $120,000, CP reported.

According to records CP obtained from Canadian Heritage under the Access to Information Act, 17 cabinet ministers have shopped there since 2012.

The most frequent customer is Joe Oliver, recently named finance minister, who's picked up 62 gifts in eight visits over the last three years, with a total value of $12,000. There's no sales tax, presumably, since no money changes hands.

Oliver, who was natural resources minister until he succeeded the late Jim Flaherty as finance minister, picked items from all parts of Canada but twice selected Inuit soapstone carvings of bears produced in Nunavut, worth about $500 apiece.

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenny was second behind Oliver, picking up 48 items valued at $6,844 over three visits, including a $500 painting.

Some gift choices reflect ministers' backgrounds, with Quebec MP Maxime Bernier favouring $45 presentation bottles of maple syrup from his Beauce riding. Former health minister Leona Aglukkaq, now holding the environment portfolio, went for items connected to her Inuit heritage, including sealskin, soapstone carvings and other Arctic crafts, CP said.

The penny-pinching Flaherty stuck to modestly priced gifts, while then-justice minister Rob Nicholson presented an unidentified foreign official with two gifts "to satisfy cultural superstition," CP reported.

Canadian Heritage spokesman Pierre Manoni told CP two items were needed because odd-numbered gifts are considered bad luck in some countries.

Supreme Court Chief Justice picked up a soapstone bear and two copper boxes near the the Gift Bank's price limit.

Interestingly, Prime Minister Stephen Harper hasn't made any withdrawals from the gift bank in the last three years, CP said, despite the fact he has presented gifts during visits overseas. Apparently there's nothing in the government's gift-giving rules that say prezzies have to come from the Gift Bank.

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Manoni said the store's inventory is chosen by discerning public servants working in Canadian Heritage's ceremonial and protocol directorate.

"Items must be Canadian made and/or made with Canadian products, by Canadian artists, and must not exceed $500," he told CP.

"Consideration is given to weight, size, fragility, cultural beliefs and sensitivities, general appearance, and we strive to ensure that each province [and] territory is represented."

So, it's not exactly the same as some Soviet-era bureaucrat getting his hands on Levi's jeans or a Sony TV to resell on the black market. The gifting protocol fulfils a legitimate function.

But still, the idea of maintaining the bricks-and-mortar Gift Bank, located across the river from Ottawa in Gatineau, Que., seems a little anachronistic in the age of the Internet.

Wouldn't it be cheaper and more efficient to put the whole process online? The government could conceivably set up a search process that allows officials to find stuff from commercial vendors that fit the guidelines with just a few mouse-clicks. It would save valuable time, too, for busy ministers and senior officials.

But then they wouldn't have get the secret thrill of being able to shop at a store no one else can use, would they?