Quote from: DKG on Today at 05:48:21 AMThe Canadian Taxpayer Federation caught British Columbia's Ministry of Jobs and Economic Growth billing taxpayers $3,900 for a happy hour "drink reception" at a conference in Amsterdam.

The B.C. government hosted 50 people during the happy hour reception. That's about $78 per person.

They even billed taxpayers an extra $600 to buy themselves another 30 minutes of partying.

You're probably wondering what value normal British Columbians got from this steep happy hour bill.

Well, the bureaucrats partied. And taxpayers got the hangover.

That is a lot of alcohol.

The Canadian Taxpayer Federation caught British Columbia's Ministry of Jobs and Economic Growth billing taxpayers $3,900 for a happy hour "drink reception" at a conference in Amsterdam.

The B.C. government hosted 50 people during the happy hour reception. That's about $78 per person.

They even billed taxpayers an extra $600 to buy themselves another 30 minutes of partying.

You're probably wondering what value normal British Columbians got from this steep happy hour bill.

Well, the bureaucrats partied. And taxpayers got the hangover.

Sir John A. Macdonald described the purpose of the Senate as being the home of "sober second thought."

You'd think that means senators need to be sober ... right?

Think again.

Senators billed you for tens of thousands on booze, plus thousands more on fine dining, disco, minigolf and escape rooms.

Individual senators jackassed up their hospitality spending 67 per cent last year. They billed you $116,100 on hospitality in one year.

And that's only half of the bill.

The Senate administration and the Senate's house officers have doubled their hospitality expenses since 2019. The higher-ups charged you $118,000 last year.

As big as the increase in hospitality expenses were, the most damning finding was what senators are billing you for.

The Senate expensed $27,000 on alcohol from the LCBO, the SAQ, wineries and the Beer Store since 2019.

Senators routinely billed you for lavish meals at high-end restaurants.

They spent a combined $20,500 on nine excursions to Le St-Estèphe, an upscale restaurant that serves French cuisine. The venue has a "top-notch wine cellar" and a "lounge [that] welcomes cigar smokers."

Canada's home of "sober second thought" billed you $790 to hire bartenders for a single event.

It even held three disco dance parties that cost a combined $2,100.
 
Senators also spent $645 playing mini-golf and $210 trying to find their way out of an escape room.

And the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is keeping track of the senate's biggest spenders. 

Senator Yvonne Boyer, the senate's biggest individual spender over the last six years, spent $8,000 on "gifts," $340 at the Keg for a "business meeting" with four people and $100 at a wine bar for another "business meeting" with two people.
 
Senator Marilou McPhedran expensed $377 on a single meal at Château Laurier. McPhedran also spent $625 for a "business meeting" with 10 people at an unusual location – the Aga Khan Museum.
 
Senator David Wells spent $550 on multiple trips to Mallard's Cottage, a 300-year-old venue in St. John's that serves delicacies like cod tongues and $16 Brussels sprouts.
 
Senator Mohamed-Iqbal Ravalia spent $1,100 on a single "business meeting" at the India Gate Restaurant that included 20 people. He also spent $260 on flowers.

Senator Bernadette Clement spent $3,300 on gifts alone.
 
Unelected senators also take pay raises every year and receive taxpayer-funded pensions.

A senator's current base salary is $184,800 and will climb to an estimated $193,600 after this year's April 1 pay raise.

Mark Carney billed Canadians $300,000 for his airplane food during his first year in office. 


It's hard to believe anyone could rack up higher travel bills than former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

But...

Prime Minister Mark Carney spent more than $21,000 on airplane food on a three-hour roundtrip to Washington, D.C. in May.

That means Carney and his entourage chewed through $7,000 of airplane food every hour.

And the flight wasn't even during a mealtime. They flew to Washington between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., where Carney and the gang immediately attended a dinner reception. They flew back at 4 p.m. the next day.

A 1.5 hour long flight, about the time it takes to fly from Calgary to Vancouver, is barely enough time to watch a whole movie, let alone chomp through thousands of dollars of food. And they spent $7,000 per hour on airplane food.

Air Canada and WestJet don't bother serving hot food on flights that short because who can't wait a few minutes to get a real meal when they land?

Two weeks after the D.C. trip, Carney went to Italy. The prime minister and his entourage spent nearly $94,000 on airplane food. That's about $5,200 an hour.

For context, that kind of money could cover the grocery bill of about five Canadian families for an entire year.

And you know Carney is wasting too much money on airplane food when he's wasting more money than Trudeau.

Trudeau also went to Italy while he was in office. He spent $43,000 on airplane food in 2024.

The Governor General's salary jumped by $15,800 this year, pushing her pay to nearly $394,000, all on your dime.

That raise was automatic. No review. No vote. Just a guaranteed pay bump, even though she already earns about five times more than the average Canadian.

While you are struggling with higher grocery bills, housing costs and interest rates, Ottawa's ceremonial figurehead keeps cashing in.

And the salary is only the beginning. On top of nearly $400,000 a year, the Governor General also gets a taxpayer-funded mansion, full staff, luxury travel, a six-figure clothing allowance and a lifetime expense account.

Conman Carney says he wants to cut program spending. If he is serious, the first cut should be obvious: the Governor General's pay and perks at Rideau Hall.

Just because you represent the King, doesn't mean you should live like one at Canadian taxpayers' expense.

But Governor General Mary Simon is living a taxpayer-funded life that would make even Louis XIV blush.

We just caught Simon taking another pay raise bringing her salary to nearly $400,000.

Plus, 98 per cent of Ottawa's government executives billed you for a bonus last year while their departments barely met half their own targets.

Welcome to Ottawa where failure is rewarded with your tax dollars.

What a waste of time and money.

Another week, another multi-million dollar segregation of your tax dollars by the federal government. This time, it's a so-called "Black-led Philanthropic Endowment Fund," which is a permanent $200 million pot of money, courtesy of Budget 2021, reserved exclusively for "Black-led and Black-serving organizations."

The fund is now being cheered on by figures like Liberal minister Marc Miller, who touted such "investments" at a recent press conference.
https://x.com/Harry__Faulkner/status/2009038539623706685?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2009038539623706685%7Ctwgr%5Eaa990b1914d7f9660f68f0ce53c99caca78d5120%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.westernstandard.news%2Fopinion%2Foldcorn-liberals-200-million-racist-slush-fund%2F70221
But let's strip away the social justice jargon. What this represents is a radical, racist policy that would ignite a firestorm of outrage if the roles were reversed.

Think about it. Seriously, picture it.

What if the headline read "Government Launches $200 Million White-led Philanthropic Endowment Fund"? Or if the administrator was called the "Foundation for White Communities"?

There would be unanimous, deafening condemnation. Every major media outlet, corporate boardroom, and university campus would scream about white supremacy. The government would apologize. The program would be scrapped before the day was out.

The hypocrisy is staggering, yet it is the official policy of the Government of Canada. We have moved from aspiring to be colour-blind to being utterly colour-obsessed. Funding and favour are now dispensed based on skin colour, a concept we once, rightly, rejected as the bedrock of racism.

This isn't about helping people in need. It's about political posturing and buying votes with a racial litmus test. The government claims this fund, stewarded by the Foundation for Black Communities, is about "combating systemic racism."

But you don't fight discrimination with more discrimination. You don't promote unity by dividing people into racial categories and handing out cheques based on them.

How much are you paying for Ottawa's bureaucracy?

SPOILER: You're paying way too much.

The federal bureaucracy cost taxpayers like you $71.4 billion last year.

It cost you $39.6 billion at the end of 2015.

That means you're paying 80 per cent more for the federal bureaucracy now than you were just 10 years ago.

Are you getting 80 per cent better services? (Ha!)

Half of Canadian say services have gotten worse since 2016, despite the massive increase in the federal bureaucracy, according to a Leger poll.

It's clear that adding more government bureaucrats doesn't mean better outcomes for you.

So why did the cost of the bureaucracy spiral out of control?

The government added about 100,000 extra bureaucrats since 2016. The growth in the number of bureaucrats doubled the growth in Canada's total employment.

And it's not like there was a bureaucrat shortage in Ottawa before 2016...

The government also jackassed up the pay for bureaucrats.

The government rubberstamped more than $1.5 billion in taxpayer-funded bonuses since 2015.

The average pay for a full-time federal bureaucrat was $148,000 in 2023 when including salary, bonus, pension and all forms of compensation.

For comparison, the annual wage paid to the average Canadian worker in 2023 was less than $70,000. 

Not only are you paying way more for in-house government bureaucrats, you're also paying way more for outside help.

The federal government spent $23.1 billion on consultants, contractors and outsourcing last year. That spending has doubled over the last 10 years.

One year after promising to cut travel costs, nearly half of federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations ignored their own targets and actually increased spending.

A total of 53 out of 111 federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations increased spending between 2023 and 2024.

That means that nearly half of departments effectively ignored the government's promise to cut travel spending.

The Copyright Board of Canada hiked its annual travel budget the most, increasing costs 120 per cent between 2023 and 2024.

The Great Lakes Pilotage Authority spent 73 percent more in 2024. Canada Council for the Arts spent 71 per cent more in 2024.

Worse still, few departments were able or willing to quantify actual savings, despite being asked for an explanation. 

Global Affairs Canada, after increasing spending 42 per cent between 2023 and 2024, said the department is "not in a position to share spending reduction measures."

Privy Council Office's spending increased 17 per cent between 2023 and 2024. The PCO said it's "working on reducing its discretionary travel expenditures," but offered the excuse that "due to the nature of Privy Council Office's work, overall travel increased in 2024-25."

The government is spending an average of $1.1 billion per year on travel, hospitality and conferences.

That's the total tax bill for 22,700 Canadian families.

After years of blowing YOUR money on extravagant trips and conferences, there is no reason why every government department can't find big-time savings.

$736,000 for Conman Carney to watch the signing of a ceasefire deal he had no part in.

Is this what "spend less, invest more" was supposed to mean?

The Liberals take your tax dollars and give it to radical Palestine activist networks, then say they're "fighting anti-Semitism."

Their whole "anti-hate" agenda is a massive fraud.