MPs waste taxpayer’s time and money snarking over catering bill
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An in-flight catering invoice of virtually $100,000 from a 2020 journey to Dubai for Governor Common Mary Simon and 30 others is elevating eyebrows in Ottawa.
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International Affairs Canada has conceded that a number of the prices on that catering tab are regarding.
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The eight-day journey to Expo 2020 in Dubai concerned a catering invoice of $93,117.89 for the group.
The invoice included “value of meals, non-alcoholic drinks and related charges, together with catering dealing with and supply, storage, cleansing and disposal of worldwide waste, airport taxes, administrative charges, safety prices, and native taxes,” in response to the doc obtained by Conservative MP Michael Barrett.
(Later, the invoice was amended and the Division of Nationwide Defence, which dealt with the catering, stated the true value was nearer to $80,000 for all 30 travellers for the eight days of flights.)
Earlier this week, MPs requested to see precise menus, as the typical worth of a meal labored out to $218 per individual for each meal — breakfast, lunch and dinner.
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In accordance with Blacklock’s Reporter, one other Conservative MP, Pierre Paul-Hus, requested, “We’d wish to know whether or not we’re coping with caviar and champagne. What sort of meals are we speaking about right here?”
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MPs on the federal government operations and estimates committee had been advised Thursday by deputy secretary to the Workplace of the Governor Common’s secretary, Christine MacIntyre, that the meals had been nothing particular.
“The meals we got are the sorts of meals you’d get on a business flight,” she stated.
MacIntyre stated the workplace was “extraordinarily involved” when the prices got here to gentle and would make the required adjustments to make sure it doesn’t occur in future.
In some circumstances, nonetheless, there are airports and cities the place solely a single caterer is accessible, and that provides the caterer a monopoly on prices, in response to Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Power Lt.-Gen. Eric Kenny.
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He advised MPs about these extenuating circumstances, additionally explaining that catering prices in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are fairly excessive.
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The catering invoice was first reported in a National Post story that ran in June of this yr.
“Did anyone have a look at the value and say, ‘Oh my God, that is an astronomically excessive worth for this small variety of meals’?” requested Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who wished to know if any try was made to vary the menu or negotiate the costs.
However as Kenny defined, in circumstances the place just one caterer was out there, there was no negotiation.
The federal authorities is working to verify prices like this don’t occur once more.
International Affairs Canada is establishing new pointers for in-flight catering prices and a few adjustments to catering protocol have already been made.
Within the face of inflation, a well being care collapse and the continued local weather disaster, the period of time MPs intend to dedicate to foods and drinks objects consumed two years in the past stays unknown.
