OTTAWA — Dealing with Canada’s reliably-tumultuous foreign affairs will clearly drive one to drink.
Newly-released documents unearthed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation suggest Global Affairs Canada — the government department responsible for Canada’s diplomatic and consular presence around the world — spent at least $3.3 million on alcohol over the past five years.
On average, that’s about $51,000 per month on various alcoholic libations.
“The government is wasting our tax dollars faster than we can say bottoms up,” said the CTF’s Federal Director Franco Terrazzano.
“Is any politician going to look a single struggling Canadian in the eye and try to justify the government spending thousands of dollars on wine tastings and cocktail parties?”
While some purchases were labeled for specific events — including $491.02 to purchase wine for a 2019 event in Ankara, Turkey — others were less specific, including numerous line items labelled “bulk purchase of alcohol,” ranging from a few dollars to a few thousand dollars.
Canada’s consulate in Boston was very specific in their wine orders, purchasing thousands in dollars in bottles from Canadian wineries, including Summerhill Estate, Henry of Pelham and Burrowing Owl Estate Winery.
In Manila, Canadian diplomats spent $4,536.42 on wine for the embassy’s 2023 Canada Day celebrations, $3,240.43 on “bulk purchase of alcohol” in March, a combined $4,798.39 on two separate bulk wine purchases, $723.67 on Crown Royal Whisky, and $1,146.10 for a March 31 purchase of ice wine.
The largest single order came in February 2019 from Washington, D.C., where $56,684 was spent on “wine purchases from special store.”
Other large purchases include a $8,074 bulk alcohol purchase by the Canadian mission in Oslo in October 2020, $6,118.23 spent on wine by the embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, $3,748.82 for a 2022 “alcohol purchase” in Paris, and $4,311.51 spent in 2022 for the purchase of “bulk wine 48 bottles for trade.”
Diplomats in Iceland seemed particularly thirsty, with a Jan. 23, 2020 alcohol purchase of $8,074, followed less than two months later by a second purchase of $2,849.
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Invitations for comment to Global Affairs Canada went unreturned by press time.
According to the CTF, just under $2 million of the purchases came from the Canadian Alcoholic Beverages Abroad program — formerly known as the Canadian Wine Initiative, its purpose is to use Canadian diplomats to promote Canadian viniculture around the world.
And that $3.3 million may not be all that Global Affairs spent on worldwide booze purchases, with the CTF confirming they were told by an access-to-information analyst that the department doesn’t centrally track” internal purchases of alcohol.
“These bureaucrats seem like they’re having a good time, but what value are taxpayers getting from this huge booze bill?” said Terrazzano.
“Billing taxpayers $51,000 a month for booze is mind boggling, but what’s even crazier is this tab is just for one government department.”
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