Why would taxpayers pay to bring back private garbage?

Here's one that even Ripley's Believe It Or Not would have a tough time accepting. Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna riases a lot of eyebrows, to the point that nothing surprises any more.

McKenna has announced that Canada will pay more than $1 million to bring dozens of containers of rotting garbage back to Canada from the Philippines in the coming days. The garbage was shipped by a private Canadian company to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014 and labelled as plastics for recycling. 

The government has awarded a contract to remove the garbage by the end of June. According to the tender, it will cost at least $1.14 million to do so. It will be covered by the Canadian government. 

McKenna's announcement came after Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte ordered his government to hire a private shipping company to leave 69 containers of garbage in Canada's territorial waters. 

The question is why would Canadian taxpayers foot the bill for a private company? What happened to McKenna’s  insistence that the Canadian government "will make the polluter pay"?

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