The Department of Foreign Affairs has spent over $139,000 on Canadian diplomats buying tickets to concert, gala, or other events abroad since 2019, according to newly released federal records.
The department wrote in an Inquiry of Ministry recently tabled in the House of Commons that since May 1, 2019, diplomats have spent $139,114 on tickets to events while overseas, with the list of ticket purchases spanning 11 pages, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
Spending on the event tickets included over $13,000 for Cirque du Soleil performances in Lisbon, Madrid, New York City, and Vilnius.
Canada’s ambassador to Serbia also billed Ottawa over $890 to attend a Bryan Adams concert, while other diplomats spent about $475 on tickets to a block party in Bangkok, Thailand.
Canada’s ambassador to Colombo spent over $3,000 to attend a dance party and banquet in Sri Lanka that celebrated “15 years of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer activism.”
Cabinet’s disclosure of the expenditures comes several months after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Ottawa would create savings “from government operations.”
“Those savings will come from government operations,” she said, “and I think that those savings are eminently obtainable.”
However, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux told a Parliamentary committee in April that he saw no cuts to unnecessary government spending following the government’s new budget introduction.
“Has the government lost control of its spending?” Giroux said later during his testimony. “I don’t know if it has lost control, but I can certainly confirm that spending has increased sharply.”
