The Audit

An appraisal of the month in money

$150

Asking price for a “Haunted IKEA Couch” on Craigslist. The owner claims the loveseat has been the cause of recurring nightmares and paranormal occurances—like creaking during the early hours of the morning and the seats compressing when no one is sitting in them.

$631

Fee to apply for a pardon in Canada, which the government has vowed to waive for those previously convicted of minor cannabis-related offences.

$67,250

Monetary value of 269 burial vases stolen from three Mississauga cemeteries, which police suspect were resold for scrap metal.

$600,000

Amount paid to a Toronto “psychic” by a superstitious 67-year-old man who was conned into believing he needed to sell his house and transfer the money to rid himself of evil spirits. The fortune teller was eventually charged with witchcraft and fraud.

$2,000,000

Estimated amount of a lawsuit against Metrolinx and the city brought forward by a woman who was hit by a slab of falling concrete at Union Station.

$3,600,000

Purchase price of the 6,000-square-foot High Park home bought by newly acquired Leafs’ centreman John Tavares.

$300,000,000

Projected savings for the province as a result of pulling funding from three post-secondary campus expansions in Brampton, Milton and Markham.

$1,200,000,000

Projected cost of a massive new Etobicoke hospital approved by the province. The facility, scheduled to open in 2023, is being constructed on an 11-hectare site near the Humber River and will specialize in rehabilitative care.