Juno News - Senators blow THOUSANDS on BOOZE and disco parties

00:00:00.000 welcome to the fighter with chris sims i am chris sims i'm the alberta director for the canadian

00:00:11.200 taxpayers federation we're always fighting for things like lower taxes less waste and more

00:00:17.300 accountable government and i'm old enough to remember a cabinet minister having to resign

00:00:23.520 over a $16 glass of orange juice.

00:00:26.640 Yeah, remember that?

00:00:27.960 Yeah, Bev Oda had gone overseas.

00:00:29.940 She was stuck in some fancy hotel.

00:00:31.660 And when she had to get her breakfast,

00:00:32.940 she got a $16 glass of orange juice.

00:00:34.980 There was hue and cry over this terrible waste

00:00:38.160 of taxpayers' money.

00:00:39.580 She actually resigned over this.

00:00:41.960 That was back in the before times.

00:00:44.200 That was in the before times when governments

00:00:46.740 used to be scared to bill you for things like booze

00:00:51.720 or mini golf or a disco party. Yeah, I'm getting into gross territory here because

00:00:58.960 this is on the front page of the National Post. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation,

00:01:05.280 okay, our investigative journalist, Jen, she dug up crazy, wasteful spending at the Senate. 1.00

00:01:13.220 The Senate. Okay. So for folks who aren't huge political nerds, there are two houses 0.56

00:01:19.320 in Parliament, in Ottawa. One of them is the House of Commons. That's where you see people

00:01:24.700 like Prime Minister Mark Carney and opposition leader Pierre Polyev, and there's the Speaker,

00:01:29.520 and the carpet is green, okay? It's actually supposed to represent the hills of England

00:01:34.140 where the commoners used to gather in order to debate things, okay? And then, this is the one

00:01:39.760 we're talking about here, okay? That's on the front page of the National Post. The other chamber

00:01:45.480 is the red chamber. It actually has red carpet to represent the crown. It's often referred to

00:01:52.380 also as the royal chamber, the Senate of Canada. Okay. So senators are appointed by the prime

00:02:00.000 minister. They get to keep their jobs until they're more than 70 years old. They're paid

00:02:06.440 close to $200,000 per year. You do not elect them. Okay. They even have their own version

00:02:14.640 of question period that nobody has ever heard of other than political nerds. They don't broadcast

00:02:20.320 it. It's just on audio. Like there's no cameras in the Senate's question period. You may not have

00:02:28.200 even known that they did that. They even have their own committees. Yeah. Senates have their 0.97

00:02:32.920 own committees and stuff. It just doesn't get attention. But boy, oh boy, are they ever lavishing

00:02:38.140 themselves with attention on your dime. Yeah, so our investigative journalist uncovered crazy

00:02:46.140 receipts. We're talking thousands of dollars spent on things like alcohol, food, I mean like fancy

00:02:55.340 French cuisine dining, big meals at the Chateau Laurier, which is like literally like a castle

00:03:01.860 in the middle of Ottawa. Things I find a little bit strange to picture, like discos. I thought

00:03:10.240 disco went out in the 70s, but apparently it still exists and the senators are going there

00:03:15.420 and you're paying for it. And mini golf. Okay, I have to stress, we are more than 1.2 trillion

00:03:25.060 dollars in debt. We have un-money right now. Every smooth nickel that the government is spending

00:03:32.420 now, right? They're adding on to the debt now. It's got interest attached to it when they add

00:03:39.860 it to the debt. You're paying those interest payments as taxpayers. And in case you forgot,

00:03:46.380 if you're a taxpayer, if you're working here in Canada, close to half of your income is taken by

00:03:53.920 taxes. Various levels of government all added together. It's close to half. Do this little

00:04:00.340 experiment. Imagine what lands in your bank account every two weeks. Say you're on a normal

00:04:05.780 salary like a typical worker. Imagine what gets deposited into your checking account every two

00:04:11.560 weeks. That's your pay. Picture it almost being double that amount. Picturing it? What could you

00:04:20.080 do if you still had that money? Could you afford more nutritious food? Could you buy that gym

00:04:26.280 membership? Could you pay for piano lessons for your kid? Could you pay down a credit card?

00:04:31.220 Could you save up money for a decent apartment or maybe even a down payment on a house? Like,

00:04:35.620 think about your salary almost being double. That is what government takes from you.

00:04:42.620 So, when you hear about them spending your money on liquor and mini golf and discos and it's in an unelected chamber of senators whose names you don't even know, guys, this is why we are tax fighters.

00:05:03.180 How are we supposed to push back on this and stop this terrible government waste?

00:05:08.100 Let's find out.

00:05:09.220 Joining me now is Franco Terrazzano.

00:05:11.640 He is, of course, the federal director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and my good friend.

00:05:16.820 Franco, we actually have a permanent full-time investigative journalist, Jen, and she dug up crazy expenses at the Senate. 1.00

00:05:26.960 Okay, and it actually made it on the front page of the National Post, which is super cool.

00:05:32.120 So I'm really glad this is getting coverage.

00:05:34.400 What are we spending money on and how much are we talking about here?

00:05:37.080 Yeah, look, Jen, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, we caught these unelected senators milking their taxpayer funded expenses, right? So number one, folks, overall picture, expenses are supposed to be used sparingly. And for crucial work purposes, these unelected senators shouldn't be using their taxpayer funded expenses to hike their taxpayer funded perks. Okay, because that's sure what it smells like here.

00:06:01.700 So Jen, she went in there, she looked at these hospitality expenses at the Senate going back

00:06:07.260 six years, and two things really stood out. Number one is what they were expensing taxpayers for,

00:06:13.500 okay? Thousands of dollars on booze. The Silver Senate expensing taxpayers thousands of dollars 0.82

00:06:20.740 on booze. Expensing us for mini golf venues, bartenders, disco venues, and so, so, so much

00:06:33.380 fine dining. But the second crazy thing here, Chris, is that in one year, individual senators

00:06:38.860 hiked their hospitality expenses 67%. A 67% increase in one year alone. Holy smokes. Okay,

00:06:51.000 that's a huge jump. I got to say, back in the day when former Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in

00:06:57.560 office, he passed the Accountability Act, his government did. And back then, there was so much

00:07:02.480 scrutiny, and rightly so. On cabinet ministers, everybody remembers the infamous $16 glass of

00:07:08.360 warrants juice, uh, by then, by then cabinet minister Bev Oda, like people were really taking

00:07:14.600 care of expenses and looking at them really harshly. We even had proactive disclosure all

00:07:19.180 the time. But what I find interesting is you're saying it's a 67% increase since 2019.

00:07:25.840 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Even worse than that over one year in one year,

00:07:31.360 in one year, individual, uh, Senate. So there's two things happening, right? So, uh, she looked 1.00

00:07:36.360 at individual Senate expenses, like individual expenses from senators, they went up 67% in one

00:07:42.180 year. And this is just hospitality expenses. Okay. But there's also Senate administration,

00:07:48.540 right? And Senate house officers. Well, the Senate administration and Senate house officers

00:07:55.240 more than doubled their hospitality expenses since 2019. So six years, but in one year,

00:08:01.660 the individual Senate hospitality expenses shot up 67%. Oh, that's way worse than I thought. Okay.

00:08:08.460 Sorry. Sorry to ask you a dumb question, but why are taxpayers paying for mini golf 0.77

00:08:15.140 for the Senate? Yeah. No, great question. I'm not sure how practicing their putt-putt 0.98

00:08:20.440 helps senators and their bureaucrats rubber stamp legislation. I have no idea. Look,

00:08:26.060 but as I mentioned, right, here's what the Senate expense taxpayers for. Remember folks,

00:08:29.860 this is your money. Okay. Booze, fine dining, mini golf, discos, gifts, flowers. And I said

00:08:35.840 fine dining and I meant fine dining. Okay. So look, $20,000 expensed on nine excursions

00:08:44.400 to an upscale restaurant serving French cuisine. I don't even want to try to pronounce its name,

00:08:50.300 but 20 grand expense to taxpayers at this, you know, fine dining upscale restaurant.

00:08:56.200 The crazy one to me, just because the name of the Senate, right, where the Senate is supposed to be the Chamber of Sober Second Thought.

00:09:05.900 Well, over six years, the Senate expensed taxpayers for $27,000 on booze.

00:09:11.500 Now, yeah, $27,000 on booze over six years.

00:09:15.520 Look, I have no idea how the Senate is, how they're possibly exercising that sober second thought when they're dropping thousands of bucks on alcohol. 0.98

00:09:23.640 Can I ask another dumb question? It used to be kind of taboo, I'll put it that way, or a no-no 0.68

00:09:35.620 of when you're going out for business, especially within government, because I remember I worked on

00:09:41.240 Parliament Hill. The idea of billing taxpayers for your booze was frowned upon. That was a big

00:09:47.640 no, no. Why are they getting away with spending this kind of money on booze? Like I can understand,

00:09:55.020 I guess maybe having to cover their lunch if they're having to work through lunch or something,

00:09:59.740 but even then I'm pretty skeptical because they get paid a lot of money, but the booze,

00:10:05.360 why are we paying for booze for senators and frankly bureaucrats? What's going on?

00:10:11.520 Well, look, the problem is, is, is like, there's a lot of problems for sure. Right. But it's like,

00:10:17.260 there's so many examples of of questionable expenses going on that it just makes you think

00:10:24.140 like that they're just using it i mean what it looks like what it seems like obviously you can't

00:10:29.520 tell what's in someone's mind but it sure seems like they're just essentially using taxpayer fund

00:10:33.680 expenses to live the good life right on other people's dime because you know um

00:10:39.280 chris you know what the chateau laurier is hey oh yeah right big beautiful castle like looking

00:10:47.240 hotel right in downtown Ottawa, a couple blocks away from Parliament Hill. And you see numerous

00:10:53.280 times of these quote unquote business meetings happening at the Chateau Laurier, where in some

00:10:59.580 instances, hundreds of dollars being expensed to the taxpayer, right? Look, there was one instant

00:11:05.280 where a senator expensed taxpayers $340 at the keg for a business meeting. You know, another $100

00:11:13.060 expense to taxpayers for another business meeting right at a wine bar. There's so many examples of

00:11:20.560 this. One senator expensed $600 for a business meeting, but the business meeting took place at

00:11:26.240 an odd location, the Aga Khan Museum. Another senator, folks, expensed $1,100, again, on a

00:11:36.100 single business meeting at the India gate restaurant. Um, and then it just goes on and

00:11:42.740 on, right? Like set senators spent 790 bucks hiring bartenders for a single event. Um, they

00:11:49.780 held three receptions at a disco venue. Okay. Costing tax. Yeah. They held three. Um, let me

00:11:57.160 just read it here. Yes. They held three receptions at a disco venue costing taxpayers, 2100 bucks,

00:12:03.860 more than $2,000. The Senate billed taxpayers 644 bucks at a mini golf venue for a single

00:12:11.240 staff working session. Okay. Another example, Senate billing taxpayers 200 bucks trying to

00:12:19.020 find their way out of, out of an escape room. I mentioned, you know, could we just lock the door?

00:12:24.380 Sorry. Sorry. Like, could we make them knock it out? I mean, lock away the credit card or

00:12:31.120 something, right? But you see what I'm saying, Chris, like just where there's so many of these

00:12:35.320 examples where I don't know, like, how do you reach a conclusion other than it's just people

00:12:41.280 trying to live off taxpayers money? Yeah, they're just blowing the money. You know, I have to stress

00:12:48.600 governments have always wasted money. That is true. But this crazy culture of entitlement

00:12:54.820 has just gone off the charts lately like back in the day folks might remember uh there were members

00:13:02.280 of government that were getting grilled at committee for expensing like a pack of gum

00:13:07.320 i think it was chiclets or something like it was a big deal because people were saying pay for this

00:13:13.380 nonsense yourself if you want to go to a disco i can't believe i'm saying that out loud disco still

00:13:18.880 exists and now i'm picturing senators discoing i know really troubling like sorry if anybody's

00:13:25.680 ever seen like the old shows from the 90s of like girls gone wild now i'm just picturing like the

00:13:31.680 senate gone wild and it's a really bad mental image and it's all on our dime so we've got djs

00:13:37.060 discos mini golf booze escape rooms all on your dime uh franco how do we reform this like are

00:13:46.940 you still going to give me another list of stuff they're spending on you can keep talking but well

00:13:50.600 the only other thing that i want to say is is also on these gifts right like just gifts and now you

00:13:56.040 don't have we don't have details yet on what the gifts were just because of the nature of the

00:13:59.720 government's expense records but one senator senator yvonne boyer spent eight thousand dollars 0.88

00:14:04.740 on gifts in six years like first of all who even wants a gift from a senator you know what i mean

00:14:11.580 like who cares i don't even know who that senator is honestly like i know okay um senator bernadette

00:14:17.380 clement uh spent three thousand three hundred bucks on gifts alone right so like it just goes

00:14:24.000 on and on and and you asked me the big picture and i think that's that's a good question to ask

00:14:29.700 and you you mentioned government entitlement pro uh problem right and it's 100 true and you know

00:14:36.660 like members of parliament uh senators also take pay raises every single year on april one

00:14:41.940 right and remember all these expenses come on top of of a senator's annual salary that's

00:14:47.140 that's just shy the base salary for a senator is just shy of 185 000 bucks okay and again they get

00:14:54.580 a raise every single year they take one uh this year's raise as of april one uh like not the raise

00:15:00.340 but what their base salary will be will be about 193 000 bucks so like they already have these huge

00:15:06.420 six-figure taxpayer-funded salaries um it's this huge government entitlement problem and chris really

00:15:12.900 the issue starts at the top right look when when the cabinet when the prime minister is totally

00:15:18.580 okay with borrowing tens of billions of dollars every single year running these massive deficits

00:15:23.300 when the prime minister whether it's carney or trudeau blowing a crazy amount of money on things

00:15:28.340 like airplane food for example well that that sets the tone throughout the rest of you know the the

00:15:34.100 the House of Commons or the Senate and the bureaucracy that is party time on taxpayers'

00:15:39.140 money and nobody's being held accountable, right?

00:15:41.260 So what we need to see is we need to see real political leaders in Ottawa who are there

00:15:45.800 who are supposed to be protecting the public purse and are saying enough is enough, putting

00:15:49.560 an end to it, ending the pay raises, cutting back the perks, and actually holding people

00:15:54.060 accountable for blowing other people's money.

00:15:57.860 Amen.

00:15:58.800 Because folks, remember, this is all your money.

00:16:01.800 about nearly half, nearly half of what you work hard to earn goes to various levels of government

00:16:09.340 out the door, flying out the door in taxes, taxes, taxes. And then they turn around and they waste it

00:16:15.960 on absolute nonsense like this. Like it's insulting. It is so gross. I think most of us, 0.98

00:16:22.460 you know, can think of ourselves or our family members who work really hard, who've been trying

00:16:26.680 to save money desperately, who might even be struggling right now. And you hear about these

00:16:31.800 pigs at the troughs, billing us for discos and mini golf and booze. I'm going to get too mad. 0.99

00:16:38.560 I wanted to quickly shift gears if you have a minute, Franco, back to what I started the show

00:16:43.480 talking about. And you and I talked about this last night and again this morning, I put out a

00:16:47.340 news release. And this is this terrible headline coming out of the Globe and Mail, and good for

00:16:52.140 them for covering this, about this massive company saying, you know what, we're hitting pause on our

00:16:58.540 multi-billion dollar expansion of a mine in northern alberta why because key reason carbon

00:17:08.120 taxes franco like i feel like we've been warning about this now forever and now we're seeing it

00:17:14.060 come home to roost yeah and look it's more proof that carbon taxes are still punishing canadian

00:17:18.840 businesses and their workers right and like yeah carney canceled the consumer facing carbon tax

00:17:24.840 but he's still imposing multiple different hidden carbon taxes.

00:17:28.740 And, you know, the one specifically on Canadian businesses is the industrial carbon tax.

00:17:33.560 And, you know, Carney's been very sneaky.

00:17:35.480 He hasn't said exactly how much he's going to keep increasing it.

00:17:38.620 But he did give us a hint right after signing that memorandum of understanding with the Alberta government.

00:17:43.500 He held a press conference and he said that it means a more than six times increase of the industrial carbon tax.

00:17:50.300 And like, look, like what are we doing here, folks?

00:17:53.000 like it doesn't make any rational sense from a rational economic standpoint right like it doesn't

00:17:58.380 make any sense because like even just think of our our closest nation right the united states our

00:18:04.500 biggest uh economic competitor the u.s regardless of who is in the white house in washington dc

00:18:11.580 whether it's republican donald trump or democrat joe biden they're not imposing carbon taxes so

00:18:17.900 like think about it right you're you're in a bit you're a business you're an investor are you going

00:18:21.880 to put your wallet in Canada where it's getting eaten away by carbon taxes? Are you just going to

00:18:27.260 set up rates south of the border in the US where there is no White House administration that's

00:18:32.600 going to hit you with carbon taxes? I hope that this will wake people up because here in Alberta,

00:18:40.200 the feeling was really weird. I got to say, Franco, back in November when they signed this

00:18:44.680 MOU, it felt like we were buying magic beans. We were, Carney flew out here. They had this big

00:18:52.020 press conference. They promised so many things. Oh, we're going to lift the production cap. Oh,

00:18:57.000 you're going to magically get pipelines. I don't see them anywhere. We're going to get all these

00:19:00.980 great things. The only fine print detail of our magic beans we're selling you though, is

00:19:05.900 you have to agree with my six times higher industrial carbon tax. And we went along with it.

00:19:11.500 and so many people were like, I don't know if this is going to work. And now here we have this

00:19:17.720 article in the Globe and Mail, this business saying it in black and white, saying we're going

00:19:23.440 to hit pause on expansion because of carbon taxes. Like what needs to happen here in your opinion

00:19:29.640 for Smith to make a move? Like politically, I think it would be smart for her to come out and 1.00

00:19:35.140 say, you know what? Scott Moe in Saskatchewan is right. We need zero carbon taxes everywhere in

00:19:40.660 Canada no carbon taxes and I will fight Carney on this do you think this might wake people up

00:19:45.960 uh yeah it would be a layup for Premier Smith to do what Scott Moe was doing right and like I'm

00:19:53.740 glad you brought up the Alberta Premier here because it's not just Carney right it's not

00:19:57.440 just Carney like yes Carney uh it deserves a ton of the blame right like even you know even when

00:20:04.340 he was like running for the big seat he admitted that he wasn't ending all carbon taxes he wanted

00:20:08.780 to change the carbon tax right his word not mine um but like so he deserves a ton of the blame here

00:20:15.520 but like so does premier danielle smith right call a spade a spade right daniel uh miss smith 1.00

00:20:20.520 like she she never uh got rid of carbon taxes in alberta right she's not doing what uh premier 1.00

00:20:25.920 scott moe was doing in saskatchewan right it's premier scott moe just said no we're not doing

00:20:30.080 it anymore and he made saskatchewan the first carbon tax-free uh province in all of canada

00:20:35.580 uh premier smith never did that right uh premier smith never got rid of the industrial carbon tax

00:20:40.860 in alberta she left the door open for carney to come in and crank it up so yes carney deserves

00:20:45.940 a huge amount of the blame but guess what so does premier daniel smith and we just had our budget

00:20:51.940 released here a few days ago and one of the main things they were talking about is oh investors are

00:20:57.600 still scared they're still not quite sure about whether or not to come up to canada i.e also

00:21:02.560 Alberta because of uncertainty, uncertainty, uncertainty. And that's what this article talks

00:21:07.200 about. And it includes carbon taxes in that uncertainty. To your point, Franco, if you're

00:21:12.860 going to start up a business, where are you going to put it? You're going to put it in Canada where

00:21:16.780 you're going to get nuked by carbon taxes, or are you going to put it elsewhere where they don't

00:21:20.500 have them? And so if they don't want to keep piling on the debt, for example, which by the

00:21:27.200 way we've now historically clocked over $100 billion here in the province of Alberta. I know

00:21:32.940 I couldn't believe it when I saw the papers. And so here we have, wakey wakey, an article and a

00:21:40.180 business saying we need to get rid of these things. I do want to do a quick note here of

00:21:45.320 federal conservative leader, opposition leader, Pierre Polyev has been consistent on this.

00:21:51.260 He was all over social media about this and good for him. He was getting a lot of pressure after

00:21:55.600 this last election to drop the whole axe the tax thing to drop the carbon tax issue he has to stick

00:22:00.860 to his guns and i'm glad he's doing it yeah look uh mr polyev deserves a ton of credit for fighting

00:22:06.960 carbon taxes right absolutely look carbon taxes look a carbon tax is a carbon tax is a carbon tax

00:22:13.180 it doesn't matter what type of lipstick politicians want to put on their carbon tax pig all carbon 1.00

00:22:18.540 taxes make life more expensive in canada hurt canada's economy and they don't work okay what

00:22:23.420 do I mean by they don't work? Well, if your whole goal is reducing emissions, I got a question for

00:22:28.080 you. How much do you cut emissions when you chase a business away from Canada and they just set up

00:22:34.060 shop south of the border? Yeah, you don't. You don't. They don't work. They just make life more

00:22:39.940 expensive and hurt our economy. But back to your point, look, Mr. Polyev deserves a ton of credit

00:22:45.020 for continuously fighting carbon taxes and not just the consumer-facing carbon tax. Polyev has

00:22:50.440 continue to rail against the hidden industrial carbon tax and oh by the way the other carbon tax

00:22:56.000 buried in fuel regulations that is currently increasing the price of gas by seven cents

00:23:00.360 per liter this year and look we're talking about an alberta oil oil sand sorry mine project right

00:23:07.860 in alberta oh i love alberta but it's not just about alberta right it's not just about alberta

00:23:12.620 because uh trade unions uh in in ontario for example have also talked about how the industrial

00:23:19.020 carbon tax is going to hurt steel companies and therefore also hurt workers who work for those

00:23:24.480 Canadian steel companies, right? Let me just read you a quote from a business manager for Canadian

00:23:30.800 Piping Trades, Local 67 in Hamilton, Ontario, quote, talking about the industrial carbon tax.

00:23:36.800 This will bankrupt the steelmaking industry in Hamilton and play right into Donald Trump's hands,

00:23:42.600 moving that steel production into the States and all the jobs that come with it.

00:23:49.020 So this isn't just an Alberta issue.

00:23:51.380 It's not just a business issue.

00:23:53.080 This hurts like so many Canadian industries and also so many Canadian workers.

00:23:58.420 The very fact that you have like, seriously, Canadian Natural Resources Limited.

00:24:05.360 I think they were hitting pause on an $8.25 billion expansion.

00:24:10.920 Fair to say that's a big business.

00:24:12.780 You have big business and a trade union coming together and saying the same thing, that the industrial carbon tax, carbon taxes are bad for Canada.

00:24:26.200 I honestly can't remember the last time I saw big businesses and a trade union coming together to speak common sense together.

00:24:34.800 It's truly a political miracle.

00:24:36.360 so hello like i really hope that alberta catches up to saskatchewan here declares itself to be a 0.67

00:24:44.560 carbon tax free zone period and if carney wants to try to force it fight him just keep fighting

00:24:50.220 him stand up for what is actually good here in canada uh franco any other notes that i have

00:24:56.040 missed here or do you want me to land this plane land the plane simmer all right franco terrizano

00:25:01.560 thank you so much for your time today he is of course our federal director with the canadian

00:25:05.060 Taxpayers Federation. Folks, if you're listening to this and you're pulling your hair out,

00:25:09.560 you can do two things. One, head on over to taxpayer.com, sign the petition to go zero

00:25:15.480 carbon taxes, no carbon taxes. That means you're already part of the taxpayer army and you'll be

00:25:21.500 part of us when we're actually trying to push back on this stuff. And two, most importantly,

00:25:25.800 okay, you're watching this on Juno News. Juno News is independent journalism. It is not funded

00:25:33.080 by the government. So make sure, if you can, to go to Juno News and take out a subscription.

00:25:40.460 Then you are supporting independent journalism in Canada, and that is how we hold governments

00:25:46.380 to account, okay? Because if journalists are getting paid by the government, are you really

00:25:52.420 getting the straight goods? No, because it's a direct conflict of interest. In order to hold

00:25:57.980 the government to account, we can't be counting on the government for paychecks. So be sure to

00:26:02.920 head on over to Juno News, take out a subscription, and remember to like this video and share it with

00:26:08.980 people who need to know.

Juno News - March 09, 2026

Senators blow THOUSANDS on BOOZE and disco parties

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript