A pair of lavish Montreal conferences in 2024 cost Canadian taxpayers more than $1 million.

Costs included a $94,900 dinner reception, $1,340 for musical spoons and $915 for flower arrangements, according to expense disclosures reviewed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“You know the government is spending way too much money when it could have taken everyone out for lunch at the Keg, ordered the most expensive meal on the menu and still saved taxpayers money,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “It seems like every time the government hosts a conference, it goes out of its way to spend taxpayers’ money as extravagantly as possible.”

The conferences were hosted by the Parliament of Canada. The cost for the two events was approved by the Senate internal economy committee and the House of Commons internal economy board.

The 49th Annual Session of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie from July 5 to 8, 2024, cost taxpayers $631,500. Costs included a “site visit” and the event itself. 

Total accommodation for the Canadian participants and staff at la Francophonie conference cost $156,000, with transportation costs totaling $87,000. A total of 18 staff spent more than $3,000 each on accommodation. Those staff cost taxpayers an average of $750 per night for their hotel rooms.

Many bureaucrats had per diems (a daily allowance) to spend, costing taxpayers $20,500. The cost of “hospitality” was $357,000.

Hospitality included $14,250 for “artistic performances” for a “cultural dinner” and $1,340 for “musical spoons.” The dinner itself, catered by Las Olas Catering, cost taxpayers $79,300. Las Olas calls itself the “creator of gourmet emotions.”

The feds also spent $198,000 on “lunches and breaks” for 475 delegates from July 3 to 9, according to the records. The Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel catered the lunches. 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 feds also dropped $29,000 on dinner buffets and lunch boxes for 85 people ($341 per person).

“Why is the government spending a thousand dollars on musical spoons for a dinner show, when it could have just grabbed a couple spoons off the tables?” Terrazzano said. “The government needs to stop looking for ways to blow taxpayers’ money.”

That wasn’t the only expensive conference.

The 70^th Annual Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly from Nov. 22 to 25, 2024, cost taxpayers $405,400.

Months before the actual conference, bureaucrats started racking up expenses on an “observation mission” to an earlier NATO meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, according to the government’s expense report. Costs also included a “site visit” in Montreal.  

For the actual Montreal conference, Ottawa spent $54,000 on transportation for the Canadian delegates at the NATO Assembly, $63,400 on accommodations and $21,400 on per diems. The opening ceremony cost $2,800 and “flower arrangements” for the conference cost $915.

Parliament also spent $253,400 on “hospitality” for 577 participants at the NATO event. That included $10,850 on “scarves for delegate bags” and $2,546 on “lapel pins.”

The feds spent $36,000 on “health breaks,” which were meals from the Montreal restaurant and oyster bar, Maestro. A separate “luncheon” at Maestro cost $26,000. The average cost per person at this restaurant is about $100.

Dinners cost a cumulative $134,000, including a $94,900 dinner reception with an $11,900 “cultural” component by Montreal contemporary circus company 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.”

“As a leading member of both parliamentary associations, the Parliament of Canada is expected to occasionally host an annual session,” the Speaker’s office said, adding “member parliaments are responsible for funding the participation of their delegates, including travel costs and accommodations.”