অর্থহীনে ভাঙা-গড়া
· Kaler Kantho
OTTAWA — Some may start calling it the “in-the-Red Chamber.”
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Long touted as Canada’s sanctuary for “sober, second thought,” figures unearthed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation show tens of thousands of dollars spent annually by Canadian senators – including big money spent on fine dining, minigolf, events and alcohol.
“It’s probably hard for senators to provide that sober second thought when they’re spending thousands on booze,” the CTF’s Franco Terrazzano said.
“Senators just jacked up their hospitality bill 67% in one year, and I bet most Canadians don’t think the Senate is providing 67% more value.”
Hospitality among the biggest spends
In the 2024/25 fiscal year, individual senators expensed $116,100 on “hospitality” – a number that increased 67% from the $69,699 reported the year previous.
Hospitality expenses, according to the senate’s quarterly expenditure reports, can include “expenses related to the provision of meals, receptions, refreshments, gifts, protocol items and other related expenses as a result of extending hospitality as required by a senator’s parliamentary functions.”
Expenses highlighted by the CTF included $27,000 spent on alcohol since 2019, as well as thousands spent on gifts and fine dining.
Among the most common haunts for senators is Le St-Estèphe – a French cuisine restaurant across the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Que. A total of $20,583 has been spent there by senators.
The biggest spender on hospitality was Ontario Senator Yvonne Boyer, who spent $15,000 on hospitality charges since 2019.
In that time, the CTF calculated she spent $8,000 on gifts, as well as hundreds on “business meetings” at various establishments over the past six years.
Manitoba Senator Marilou McPhedran was also named as a big spender, spending $377 in one day at the Chateau Laurier, and $623.35 for a 2023 business meeting at Toronto’s Aga Khan museum.
In 2019, Newfoundland and Labrador Senator Mohamed-Iqbal Ravalia spent $1,000 for a 20-person business meeting at an Indian restaurant in St. John’s.
Invitations for comment by the Toronto Sun to Boyer, McPhedran and Ravalia went unacknowledged.
Long-standing concerns over use of taxpayer’s money
“Just because it’s called the Red Chamber, it doesn’t mean senators should be driving Canadian taxpayers further into the red,” Terrazzano said. “ Prime Minister Mark Carney needs to crack down on these frivolous and wasteful expenses.”
Taxpayer money being used for questionable expenses has become a concern over the past several years.
Global Affairs Canada spent $3.3 million on alcohol since the 2019 – that’s about $51,000 per month on average.
Canada’s embassy in Washington, D.C., spent $56,684 on what was described as “ wine purchases from special store,” while Canada’s mission in Oslo spent $8,074 on bulk alcohol purchases in Oct. 2020, while in January of that year Canuck diplomats in Iceland spent $8,074 on booze, followed less than two months later by a second purchase of $2,849.
As well, federal bureaucrats spent $8 million to rent paintings and artwork from the Canada Council of the Art’s federal art bank, a government-run repository of more than 17,000 pieces of Canadian artwork made available for politicians and staffers to hang in their offices.