Musical spoons, scarves and fancy dinners: Feds spent over $1M on pair of Montreal conferences in 2024
Hundreds of delegates at a Francophonie conference hosted by Canada’s parliament in Montreal last spring went home with “musical spoons” ordered from Amazon at a cost of more than $1,300, according to federal financial reports.
Attendees at a Parliament-hosted NATO event in the city in November, meanwhile, were gifted scarves, lapel pins and pens in delegate bags on which Ottawa spent almost $25,000.
And that’s just a small portion of what former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government spent on the two events. Hundreds of thousands more were doled out for transportation, lavish meals and accommodations, other “hospitality” expenses.
In total, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) said Parliament spent more than $1 million, based on calculations from this fiscal year’s quarterly financial reports for conferences hosted by the Parliament of Canada.
“The government should be able to host conferences without ballooning the tab so extravagantly,” CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano told National Post in an interview.
“This is Canadians’ money. Canadians are going through a very difficult time. I think it’s time for a culture change within the federal bureaucracy.”
The first event was the 49th Annual Session of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel, July 5-8.
By the CTF’s calculations, double checked by National Post, the event ended up costing roughly $631,500, which includes expenses accrued by five parliamentary staffers during a site visit a month prior.
While accommodations and transportation for Canadian participants and staff accounted for more than $243,000 of that, the bulk — $357,000 — fell under “hospitality.”
That included about $198,000 to provide lunch and break food to 475 delegates over four days, almost $29,000 for dinner buffet and lunch boxes for 85 participants from a now-closed nearby Italian restaurant.
As highlighted by the CTF, the on-site restaurant Marche Artisans offers a $52 per person rate on its à la carte group menu.
“The government could have taken everyone out for lunch at The Keg, ordered the most expensive lunch meal on the menu, and still saved taxpayers money,” Terrazzano said.
Another $80,000 was dropped on a “cultural dinner” as the conference concluded.
While dining that night, attendees were treated to performances by Le Monastère, a Montreal-based circus-like performance group, and another by Les Rats d’Swompe, an Ottawa band that plays a blend of traditional folk, rock, pop, and punk. They were paid fees of 5,750 and $4,250, respectively.
An undisclosed number of “musical spoons” were also ordered for the dinner, costing $1,339.67. It’s not clear what music the utensils played.
“When the government is spending $1,300 of other people’s money on musical spoons, it sends the signal that government bureaucrats are looking for ways to waste other people’s money,” Terrazzano said.
A chunk of the money was paid out to staff, 27 of whom collected per diems worth a combined $20,000 and the CTF said “a total of 18 staff spent more than $3,000 each on accommodation,” costing an average of $750 per night.
Parliament also played host to the 70th Annual Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Nov. 22-25, with CTF determining its final bill to be $405,000.
After transportation ($54,000), accommodations ($63,000), and per diems ($21,400), “hospitality” made up the bulk of the expenses billed back to Ottawa by the 577 participants.
Posh Montreal seafood restaurant and oyster bar Maesto was paid more than $88,000 for health Breaks, a welcome reception and a single luncheon.
A dinner for 130 people at Mediterranean-inspired restaurant Pangea rang in at almost $16,000, another catered by Société Traiteur cost $11,500, and a final-night dinner reception was billed for over $94,000, which included a nearly $12,000 performance by Montreal contemporary circus company Cirque Éloize.
Assembly attendees were also provided delegate bags ($10,500) that contained scarves ($10,850), lapel pins ($2,500) and pens ($672).
Also included in the grand tally is a solo bureaucrat’s solo NATO “observation mission” to Sofia, Bulgaria in May, and a site visit to Montreal by nine parliamentary staff that cost over $15,000 between transportation, accommodations, per diems and hospitality.
Terrazzano said if the federal government is serious about saving money, it should start by cutting down on its conference bills.
“This type of spending is what infuriates Canadians,” he said.
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