Your tax dollars at work

Welcome back. Every quarter, federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations post their travel and hospitality claims to the government’s open-data portal, and every week we read them so you don’t have to. Everything below comes straight from those filings—the government’s own records, in the government’s own words, with our commentary attached. Let’s begin at Pearson Airport, where the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants—the federal regulator for immigration consultants—held its all-staff event at the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel on June 12. Breakfast, lunch, refreshments, and dinner for 134 people came to $34,274, roughly $256 a head. That’s a very nice anniversary dinner for two, per person, at an airport hotel. Five days later, interim president and CEO Stanislav Belevici’s 14-member board met in Burlington, fed by a vendor disclosed as “Corporate Crazy Catering (Seventh Heaven)” for $3,439—about $246 per director for a day of meals. Seventh Heaven, indeed. Correctional Service Canada, meanwhile, gathered the Heads of Corrections at the Sheraton in St. John’s on June 9, where hospitality for 30 ran $3,989, or $133 each. And the Justice Department’s Business and Regulatory Law Portfolio held its spring/summer senior management training day at Camp Fortune—yes, the ski hill in Chelsea, Quebec—for $2,781 in catering. No lift tickets appear in the disclosure. Over in the French Alps, Telefilm Canada worked the Annecy animation festival with a 200-guest networking event at Maison Viret for $3,704, followed two days later by a smaller do for 70 at $3,050. At $19 and $44 a head, respectively, that’s about the going rate for cocktails and canapés, though the second round was more than double the first. On the travel side, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board—the Crown corporation that invests federal pension money—is this week’s frequent flyer. Simon Marc, its global head of private equity and real estate, billed $20,701 for a May trip to New York and Montreal, of which $16,493 was airfare. Colleague Oliver Duff’s March trip on the same route came to $18,351, with $15,856 of that in airfare. For reference, Montreal to New York is a 90-minute flight; the filings don’t say what class of seat. PSP also has a standing appointment in London: CEO Deborah Orida went in March for $12,888 and again in July for $13,287, chief legal officer Mélanie Bernier went in May for $11,996 and June for $11,823, and CFO Caroline Vermette went June 7–11 for $12,449. That same week, the banking regulator OSFI’s Kathy Thompson was also in London, on the anti-money-laundering circuit, for $13,677. One imagines a Canadian table at some Canary Wharf pub. Singapore was the other destination of the summer. Global Affairs’ Weldon Epp co-chaired ASEAN meetings in Jakarta before consultations in Singapore for $16,282; the Standards Council’s Elias Rafoul attended the ISO Council there for $13,509; and Law Commission president Shauna Van Praagh flew in for a Commonwealth law-reform conference at $11,704. Three agencies, three months, one city-state. Two solo acts deserve mention. Nadia Theodore, Canada’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization, filed $17,103 for a three-night trip to Washington in late June—$15,495 of it airfare, which is roughly a used Honda Civic’s worth of plane ticket for “discussions and forward planning.” And Leslie Weir, the librarian and archivist of Canada, went to Beijing and Shanghai in May for $12,766 to advance the Canada–China strategic partnership. We didn’t know the national archives had a China file, but now we do. Finally, a reminder that the disclosure rules cut both ways. When Correctional Service Canada threw its annual headquarters recognition ceremony at Library and Archives on June 17, refreshments for 300 people came to $2,754—about $9 a head, or a large latte and a muffin. It’s on the portal, right beside the airport-hotel dinners. Every dime, disclosed. See you next week. The article reviews recent travel and hospitality claims made by federal departments and agencies, highlighting expenditures of taxpayer dollars. Notable expenses include a $34,274 event for the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants and significant travel costs for executives of the Public Sector Pension Investment Board. The article emphasizes the transparency of these expenditures, as they are publicly disclosed. It also contrasts lavish spending with more modest events, such as a recognition ceremony by Correctional Service Canada. Overall, the piece underscores the importance of accountability in government spending. Ask about this article — or anything in Canadian politics, economics, and public policy — powered by The Hub’s 5,000-article archive and deep area expertise. Comments (0)