You idiots that voted Liberal or NDP believe this is okay. You should pay for it, not us.
Feds blow $1 million on swanky Montreal conferences
A pair of lavish Montreal conferences in 2024 cost you more than $1 million.
Costs include the federal government spending $94,000 on a dinner reception, $1,340 for musical spoons and $915 for flower arrangements, according to the records dug up by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The first conference was the 49th Annual Session of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie from July 5 to 8, 2024. This conference cost you $631,500.
The government spent more than $156,000 on accommodations. Some bureaucrats even billed you $750 per night for their hotel rooms.
The government also spent more than $87,000 on transportation, $20,500 on per diems for bureaucrats and $357,000 on “hospitality.”
The hospitality expenses included $1,340 for “musical spoons” and $14,250 for “artistic performances” for a “cultural dinner.” The dinner itself, catered by Las Olas Catering, cost taxpayers $79,300. Las Olas calls itself the “creator of gourmet emotions.”
Dinner buffets and lunch boxes cost $29,000. The feds also spent $198,000 on “lunches and breaks” for 475 delegates catered by the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth.
The hotel offers a $60 per person group rate for lunch. The government could have ordered the most expensive lunch item at the Keg across the street and gotten everyone a 12 oz New York striploin for $51 and taxpayers would have still saved money.
The second conference the government hosted in Montreal was for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly from Nov. 22 to 25, 2024.
The government billed you $405,400 for the conference.
The feds shelled out $63,400 on accommodation, $54,000 on transportation, $21,400 on per diems and $253,400 on “hospitality.”
The opening ceremony cost $2,800 and “flower arrangements” for the conference cost $915.
The feds spent $10,850 on “scarves for delegate bags” and $2,546 on “lapel pins.”
You were forced to pay $36,000 for “health breaks,” which were meals from the Montreal restaurant and oyster bar, Maestro. A separate “luncheon” at Maestro cost $26,000.
Dinners cost a cumulative $134,000, including a $94,900 dinner reception with an $11,900 “cultural” component by a Montreal contemporary circus company called Cirque Éloize.
The office of the Speaker of the House of Commons confirmed to the CTF “there are no expected reimbursement by visiting delegates or their parliaments for any of the costs.”
Franco’s note: Why did the government spend a thousand bucks on musical spoons for a dinner show, when it could have just grabbed a couple spoons off the tables?
The federal bureaucracy is out of control
The cost of the federal bureaucracy ballooned 80 per cent in 10 years, according to the government’s Public Accounts disclosures.
The federal bureaucracy cost $71.4 billion in 2024-25. It cost $39.6 billion in 2015-16, according to the Public Accounts.
That means you’re now paying 80 per cent more for the federal bureaucracy than you were 10 years ago.
Are you getting 80 per cent better services from the federal bureaucracy?
Unless you’re a federal bureaucrat taking a bigger taxpayer-funded salary, we think the answer to that question is a big fat NO.
And it looks like the bureaucracy costs continue to balloon under Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“Spending on personnel in the first five months of 2025-26 totaled $31.2 billion, an increase of 7.8 per cent relative to the same period last year,” according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
The Public Accounts show you’re not only paying way more for in-house government bureaucrats, but you’re also paying way more for outside help.
The government spent $23.1 billions on consultants, contractors and outsourcing last year. That’s more than double what the government spent on consultants, contractors and outsourcing in 2015-16.
VIDEO: What is Carney hiding? Slicing through Carney’s budget: The Franco Terrazzano Show!
The Parliamentary Budget Officer just sliced through Carney’s budget creative accounting.
Carney’s capital budget is just a ruse to hide spending. He’s taking $94 billion out of operating spending and sticking a capital spending label on it to make government finances look better than they are.
The reality is that Carney is continuing on a course of unaffordable borrowing and the PBO report shows government messaging about “balancing the operating budget” is not credible.
The latest episode of the Franco Terrazzano Show slices through Carney’s creative accounting. You can watch (and share) the video by clicking the link below.
WATCH: taxpayer.us1.list-manage.com
Taxpayer reading list
If you’re looking for more reading on taxpayer issues, we’ve got you covered.
Surprise, surprise, Carney’s ‘capital budget’ is just a ruse to hide spending: taxpayer.us1.list-manage.com
Planes, limos & 85% increase: taxpayer.us1.list-manage.com
N.L. government wastes $40,000 on luxury tour with no results: taxpayer.us1.list-manage.com
New records show province must cut travel costs to save money: taxpayer.us1.list-manage.com
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