Canadian taxpayers spent $172,500 for consultations on a controversial war memorial ordered by the Harper government and cancelled by the Trudeau government — consultations that will never be made public.

According to an Access to Information document, Parks Canada spent the money on a Detailed Impact Analysis (DIA) on the “Mother Canada” statue that was planned for the Cape Breton highlands. Parks Canada said it spent the money between fall 2013 and summer 2015.

The ATI request was sent to Heritage Canada, which worked closely with Parks Canada and Veterans Affairs on the design and construction of the memorial.

The controversial war memorial was initiated by Toronto businessman Tony Trigiani, president of Norstar Corporation. Trigiani headed the Never Forgotten National Memorial Foundation, the group proposing the construction of the monument.

In February, Daniel Watson, CEO of Parks Canada, said a review of the project had concluded that too many key elements “remain outstanding for the project to be achieved by the planned date of July 1, 2017.”

Those elements included the Foundation lacking sufficient funding, disagreement over the funding for construction and maintenance, and the lack of a “definitive final design plan.”

“As a result, the project will not be moving forward on Parks Canada land,” Watson said.

The Foundation had planned to raise a necessary $25 million to build the memorial. The previous Conservative government had awarded it a grant of $100,000.

Parks Canada says that the environmental assessment was still in the process of being completed when the decision to withdraw from the memorandum of understanding was made. As a result, the DIA will not be completed and input provided by the public on the environmental assessment will not be released.

“In light of the fact that comments made by the public were made specifically to provide input on the environmental assessment process, Parks Canada will not be posting those comments,” says a Park Canada statement.

The document shows that Parks Canada provided $100,000 “through contribution agreements to develop a visitation analysis to inform the proposal as well as to support a website to maximize public engagement and information sharing.” Also, “Parks Canada incurred expenses related to the Agency’s legislative requirements.”

“Expenses related to the environmental assessment included a $42,000 Mi’kmaq Ecological Knowledge Study and a $20,000 land survey,” says the document, adding that Parks Canada required that information as part of its due diligence as the owner of the land and in light of the environmental assessment process.

“In addition, $10,500 was incurred to hire a consultant required to facilitate meetings, including the public information session in Ingonish.”

In a statement emailed to iPolitics, Parks Canada echoed its earlier statement and said that the public feedback “sought on the draft Detailed Impact Analysis was specifically to provide input into the environmental assessment process. Because the environmental assessment for the project was never finalized, a summary was not completed for public release.”

Aaron Wudrick of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said it’s hard to determine whether $172,000 is a reasonable amount to pay for the consultation because Parks Canada refuses to release the details of the consultations.

“Barring exceptional circumstances, the results of these types of consultations should be made public since it is the only way Canadians can have any confidence their money is being spent effectively,” wrote Wudrick in an email.

“When taxpayers have to pay the bill, it’s not unreasonable for them to ask what they’re paying for and the vague term “consultations” is not good enough.”

The Mother Canada project was criticized over concerns ranging from the environmental to the aesthetic. A local environmental group, Friends of Green Cove, led the charge against the monument. Upon learning that the project was not going ahead, Sean Howard of Friends of Green Cove said it was a victory for the cause of protecting national parks. He also called the news “bittersweet” because the project had become such a divisive issue in the community.

Cape Bretoners were divided on the project’s merits. Hector Murphy of Ingonish told the Globe and Mail in 2014 that the ocean-facing monument would distract from the area’s pristine beauty.

“If they put it down at Green Cove, all you’re going to see is her arse,” he told the Globe.

Meanwhile, Liberal MP Mark Eyking, who represents the riding that would have been home to the monument, maintained all along that the statue could be good for the area.

“My position has always been that I supported the idea of the project as long as it met all the criteria, and the private funding needed was in place,” Eyking said in February after the project was cancelled.