Toronto lawyer Jim Love flew business class with his wife, slept at Hyatt and Four Seasons hotels, and spent a day on a boat trip to the Great Barrier Reef and a night having dinner at a crocodile farm, according to travel receipts and conference programs.
Love, appointed chair of the mint's board of directors in 2009 by the Conservative government, billed the mint $44,566 for his and his wife's flights, hotels, taxis and meals for the two trips. His term ended last year.
The Australia trip was to attend the 2010 Mint Directors Conference, one of the biggest international events in the minting industry, which attracts suppliers and clients from around the world. The Canadian mint says it sends members of its government-appointed board of directors abroad from time to time to such industry events "in order to meet with prospective customers, and also promote the mint's brand on a global level."
But after the convention was officially over, the mint sent the Loves on a post-conference group tour to Australia's tropical region, for which tickets cost $1,175 per person, according to the Australian Mint, which organized it.
The Loves flew on Sept. 30, 2010, from Sydney to tropical Cairns, in northeast Australia, and spent three days there, according to travel records obtained by CBC's the fifth estate under access to information.
They were joined by the mint's then-CEO, Ian Bennett, and his wife, who also enrolled in the tour — at a further cost to the Canadian Mint.
Activities included a daylong boat trip to Great Barrier Reef, with global mint-industry executives hanging out on deck in swimwear.
An official with the Australian mint, which organized the conference and subsequent tour, said the latter is "more about seeing the country but also allowing the networking opportunities." Michelle Nakamura said about 180 of the 400-plus mint industry personnel who attended the conference signed up for the tour.
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Reached at his office in Toronto last week, Love, who was a close friend of the late former finance minister Jim Flaherty, would not agree to an interview about the 2010 trip.
In all, the Canadian mint sent at least seven people to Australia for the conference, of whom at least the Loves and Bennetts stayed afterwards for the sightseeing and networking. Total bill: more than $66,500.
Two years later, it was more of the same: Love and his wife attended the next Mint Directors Conference, in Vienna in 2012. They again went on the post-conference tour, a voyage by train through the Austrian countryside followed by a couple nights in Salzburg. The total bill for their business-class airfares and hotel stays during the conference: $21,967.
Original Article
Source: CBC
Author: Zach Dubinsky
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