Financial receipts obtained through Freedom of Information reveal jaw-dropping expenditures, including a $143,000 tab for Mayor Gregor Robertson’s reception, with $13,000 spent on booze.
The chicken samosas, with tamarind, that tempted the palates of Robertson’s guests cost $1,029. Vegetable spring rolls, with plum sauce, came in at $1,008. Total bill for fine food at the reception was $96,037. Only $56 was spent on non-alcoholic beverages.
About 2,000 municipal politicians from across Canada attended the four-day Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in early June. Civic discussions included how to tap new infrastructure funding announced in the 2013 federal budget.
On the sidelines, hot conversation focused on the crack-smoking scandal of Mayor Rob Ford in Toronto, and the senate spending fiasco in Ottawa.
Clearly though, sipping, nibbling, and hobnobbing was key business.
The conference’s gala dinner cost $190,000, a coffee break $26,000, and a continental breakfast $121,500, documents say. Farewell breakfast was merely $53,300. Entertainment and “decor” cost $213,000.
Delegates were gifted with $19,000 worth of Vancouver-branded umbrellas. Bike rentals, for touring on Vancouver’s vaunted bike lanes, cost $5,748.
Vancouver taxpayers put up $750,000 to fund the four-day conference, which cost almost $1.2-million in total. Sponsors including Metro Vancouver, TransLink and B.C. Hydro contributed $234,000 to the bill.
The municipal politicians who attend similar conferences year-after-year say they provide invaluable chances to network with different governments, learn from the best new policy ideas, and lobby for federal funding.
Nonsense, says Jordan Bateman of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“We have so many of these darn conferences now, at all levels of local and regional government,” Bateman said Thursday. “Surely there’s a cheaper way of connecting politicians without spending hundreds of thousands, or in this case, more than a million on partying.”
Bateman noted that even though Vancouver tried to ease the burden on local ratepayers by raising sponsorships worth over $200,000, “even at that, half the sponsors are other government agencies.”
“I just think there is a better way than sending people all across the country,” Bateman said. “If you start thinking about 2,000 people flying in and staying downtown, this is a very expensive thing for taxpayers across the country.”
But Vision Vancouver Coun. Raymond Louie said that taxpayers actually got good value for money, in this case. In an interview, Louie said that although $750,000 in taxpayer spending was budgeted by a previous council, final costs for Vancouver ratepayers will be closer to $440,000 after cost-cutting and bill-sharing with sponsors is factored in.
And according to estimates from Tourism Vancouver and the conference centre, Louie said, there was a significant boost in out-of-town spending during the conference.
Original Article
Source: theprovince.com
Author: Sam Cooper
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