The cost of schmoozing: What Canadian MPs spent on wining, dining and Tim Hortons

NationalPost.com
July 21, 2016
Marie-Danielle Smith

Canadian political manoeuvres take place as much at coffee-shop tables and restaurant booths as they do in the halls of parliament. Some MPs are more adept at schmoozing than others. Some charge much more to their expense accounts than others, too.

For day two of a three-part series on MP expenses, the National Post looked at the caffeinating, wining and dining charged to MP offices in fiscal 2016 (ended March 31), according to expenditure reports published by the Speaker’s office.

On the coffee front, the patriotic will be happy to know that the most popular coffee chain by far is Tim Hortons (despite its now-foreign ownership). More than 190 MPs charged the House of Commons for Tim’s, to the tune of almost $14,000.

The biggest bill came from Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux — $345 in mid-December.

“It’s Christmas time. I’ll go out and buy little dollar gifts and coffee and doughnuts,” he said, to distribute them in neighbourhoods where seniors live. “Tim Hortons is convenient. People are familiar with it.”

Van Houtte Coffee Services got $5,734 in House money, mainly to stock MPs’ offices with coffee for visitors. Starbucks clocked in at $1,156 from 33 MPs. The biggest Starbucks bill ($114) came from Randeep Sarai. His constituency office shares a wall with a Starbucks, his executive assistant said — “it has become a go-to favourite.”

Second Cup only attracted four members, but Bridgehead, a fair trade coffee chain in Ottawa, came out a winner as eight MPs managed to spend more than $1,000 there.

NDP MP Nathan Cullen went 21 times, expensing $391 in products — he called it a “good local business” with “strong environmental ethics.”

“I don’t tend to meet in my offices unless it’s confidential, private information,” Cullen said. “I really like having people out in the open because anything they can say to me, they can say in a coffee shop where they can be overheard.”

When it came to alcohol, Quebec (18 liquor store purchasers) and Ontario (14) had the most MPs charging alcohol to the taxpayer — $3,867 at the Société des alcools du Québec and $1,455 at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario.

The biggest Quebec liquor bill was $662 at SAQ, charged by Jean Rioux on the same day he spent about $239 at a fromagerie, both bills attributed to a “constituency meeting” — though it would probably be more accurate to say “constituency wine and cheese” — with about 135 guests.

On the Ontario side, the biggest LCBO bill, $361, came from Conservative MP Phil McColeman at the end of November. To pair with the booze, for a crowd of 30, there was a $576 purchase at the Golden Palace the same day.

Those from Ottawa will know that the Chinese restaurant is famous for its egg rolls. With sales tax included, that amount would have bought 268 of them or just shy of nine (sizeable!) egg rolls per person at McColeman’s gathering.

One of the biggest individual restaurant bills was charged to Status of Women Minister Patty Hajdu’s office budget — $1,356 on March 5 for an International Women’s Day brunch.

Almost 120 MP offices charged the House of Commons for pizza. Only 17 expensed for sushi.

But most big food purchases tend to come from catering. NDP MP Peter Julian spent just over $4,000 for an annual Christmas social in his riding, which he said was expensive because they bought enough sandwiches and coffee for 2,000 people — though it was rainy last year and only 500 showed up.

“Everybody in the riding is invited,” he said. “People can raise any concerns they have.”

Conservative MP Candice Bergen, for her part, spent nearly $3,000 at caterer Pure Kitchen in Carman, Man., in her riding for a volunteer appreciation event. “We were happy to host an event to recognize the enormous contribution to the community made by volunteers,” her office said.

Another Conservative MP, Peter Van Loan, paid about $3,400, including more than $2,000 just for barbecue rentals, at his annual pancake breakfast last year. It’s a “pretty successful” volunteer-run event, his office said, that usually attracts close to 1,000 people.

Aaron Wudrick, president of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said the federation is a “pretty hard line” group, but it wouldn’t go so far as to say hospitality budgets should be slashed.

“The number just has to be reasonable,” he said of bills for things such as refreshments and restaurant meals. “Frankly, we’re just glad that this information is out there now … The very fact that this stuff is coming to light is a good sign.”

Certain specific restaurants — what Ottawa-bubble watchers will know as the usual suspects — were well-represented in MP expenditure reports.

Before Hy’s Steakhouse closed permanently in February, the notorious Ottawa hotspot gleaned $1,985 in sales from 10 MPs’ office budgets.

Eleven MPs patronized the Metropolitain Brasserie, a Parliament Hill hangout, for a total of $2,888. Newly elected Liberal MP Ali Ehsassi spent $776 at the restaurant one night, hosting about 15 guests.

“We had the first-ever celebration of Nowruz (Persian New Year) at Parliament,” Ehsassi said, noting that his office made sure to check everything was above-board with hospitality expenditure rules. “At the conclusion of that, I took out several of the performers and individuals who had helped pull the event together.”

By far, the most popular choice for dining was the Parliamentary Restaurant inside Centre Block. With a few exceptions, access is limited to current parliamentarians and high-ranking officials, as well as ex-parliamentarians and members of the press gallery.

About 200 MPs used some of their budgets to expense meals at the restaurant during in fiscal 2016 year, spending $57,697 in total.

The biggest bill was from NDP MP Sheila Malcolmson’s office, at $1,923 — that went toward catering for an International Women’s Day breakfast, her office said. Malcolmson is her party’s status of women critic and invited representatives from universities and organizations such as Equal Voice. About 170-200 people attended.

The next-biggest bill was from new Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes, who is parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Her office said she hosted about 200 people at the end of February — “from both on and off the Hill” — for a reception marking the 20th anniversary of Black History Month in Canada. Catering by the parliamentary restaurant cost $1,365.

Rounding out the top three parliamentary restaurant bills was a $1,289 cheque from Conservative Bruce Stanton — which did not include alcohol, he took care to note.

It was early December, during the lead-up to the election of the Commons’ speaker and Stanton was one of the candidates.

He said he hosted a “brief noontime reception,” with finger food, to give MPs a chance to drop by, talk about their interests and ask questions “pertaining to the election of the speaker.” About 45 guests were there, the hospitality report says.

“The chance to have a little bit of nourishment as part of your day, especially in parliament, it does become a bit of a draw, I’ve got to say,” explained Stanton. “It does help get people to drop by.”