The National Post reports in its Tuesday edition that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation found the federal government spent at least $4.8-million last year on over 53,000 unused Microsoft subscriptions and licences for employees. The Post's Chris Knight writes that the information came from a question submitted on March 11 in the House of Commons by Adam Chambers, Conservative MP for Simcoe North. He asked for the total number of Microsoft licences paid for by the government, their cost, how many users are able to access Microsoft products through them and how many were unused. The response was tabled in the House on April 27. In total, last year Ottawa spent $4.8-million buying 33,213 Microsoft licences that nobody used. However, it bought another 19,860 unused licences without disclosing how much it spent on them. There are more than 50,000 Microsoft licences and subscriptions that the government isn't using. "It's more than $4.8-million," Franco Terrazzano, CTF's federal director, told National Post. "The 4.8 million is just for the 33,000 licences and subscriptions that nobody uses. But there's another almost 20,000 subscriptions that nobody uses, that the government just refuses to say how much is spent on those."