Metro Vancouver Spent $64,000 on Wine and Cheese Event in Toronto – BC

Metro Vancouver delegates attending a national conference for municipalities last year hosted an expensive networking event at a Toronto hotel, Global News has learned.

Through a request under the Freedom of Information Act, Global News obtained receipts relating to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities annual conference.

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Call for a review of Metro Vancouver governance

During the conference, Metro Vancouver hosted an event with an open bar and fine dining.

Among the purchases were shrimp tempura valued at $2,000, smoked salmon with dill cream and walnut bread valued at $1,800, cheese and charcuterie stations valued at $5,200 and a “Little Italy” station for $4,200.

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The bill also included about $2,400 worth of domestic beer, $3,000 worth of imported beer, $4,300 worth of white wine and $3,500 worth of red wine.

The total bill for food and alcohol was $64,620.94

New Westminster councillor Daniel Fontaine called the spending staggering.

“This absolutely points to a problem with Metro Vancouver, which is that their costs are getting out of control,” he said.

“There is very little oversight of these expenditures.”

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This latest revelation follows questions about how much taxpayer money was spent on attending a conference on urban sewerage in Amsterdam.

“This is exactly why the provincial government needs to step in and re-appoint the office of the local auditor general,” said Carson Binda, executive director of the Canadian Taxpayer Federation BC.

“We’ve seen one spending scandal after another in Metro Vancouver.”

Metro Vancouver says it has been hosting the networking reception for more than 10 years, but as part of its ongoing evaluation, the decision was made not to host a networking event this year.

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