An Alberta senator spent more than $4,500 travelling to a parliamentary meeting in France where he wasn’t allowed to speak up and participate without permission and he couldn’t vote because Canada isn’t even a member of the organization.

Senator Scott Tannas billed taxpayers more for international travel than any other senator in Alberta. 

“Tannas blew thousands of dollars on a trip to France for meetings where he couldn’t even cast a vote, so he can’t point to a nickel of benefit for the taxpayers who he stuck with the bill,” said Kris Sims, Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “Taxpayers are fighting to afford the basics of life here at home and they can’t be forced to pay for pointless trips for unelected senators to visit Europe.”

Tannas spent $10,795 on three trips abroad between January 2023 and March 2026, according to records obtained by the CTF. 

Tannas’s international travel included two trips to the United States and a visit to France. 

Tannas billed taxpayers $4,545 to travel to Strasbourg, France, in April 2024, to attend a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

PACE sessions are also live-streamed and viewable online from anywhere in the world.

Canada is not a member of the Council of Europe. Canadian parliamentarians participate in its assembly as observers, where they can only speak with permission from the president and cannot vote.

Parliament sent four senators and two elected MPs, Stéphane Bergeron and Francesco Sorbara, to the session. The eight-person delegation cost taxpayers $40,654.

Tannas did not deliver or submit a speech during the PACE debates. He asked one question at a meeting, according to Parliament’s post-trip report.

“The Senate is costing Canadians more than $140 million this year and it’s easy to see why with pointless trips like these,” said Sims. “The Senate has cost us more than a billion dollars in the last decade and all attempts to reform it have failed. It’s time to abolish this expensive rubber stamp.”

Tannas also billed taxpayers $3,792 for a four-day congressional visit to Washington, D.C., in February 2023.

Parliament sent five elected MPs, John McKay, Anthony Housefather, Tom Kmiec, Peter Julian and Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, and three senators on the trip. The delegation cost taxpayers $35,350