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CBC booze tab sobering reality
Drink bills topped $1,400 during overnight stay
By ALTHIA RAJ, NATIONAL BUREAU
Last Updated: 3rd May 2009, 3:08am
Senior managers at Radio-Canada expensed more than $1,400 in booze during two-day retreat in 2006, Sun Media has learned.
Documents obtained through an access to information request show the August retreat for 14 managers at Les Trois Tilleuls et Spa Givenchy cost $8,958.01.
Sylvain Lafrance, head of CBC's French-language service, was among the participants at the overnight getaway held just 35 minutes from their Montreal office.
The bulk of the money -- more than $6,800 -- was spent on 12 hotel rooms. Dining room costs at the four-star inn totalled $2,056, of which $1,400 was for wine, scotch, cocktails and beer.
APPROVED EXPENSES
CBC spokesman Marco Dube said while the public broadcaster does not have a policy towards expensing liquor, all expenses incurred for meetings are subject to approval by the employee's superior.
"All expenses need to be reasonable to be approved," he noted, adding that since last fall all non-essential and discretionary expenses have been kept to a minimum.
The Les Trois Tilleuls, which describes itself as a "world-class country inn and spa complex," offers such services as tanning beds, tennis courts and golf. It boasts of an "exceptional wine cellar" with over 16,000 bottles of wine and more than 120 brands of whisky and bourbon.
Senior managers dropped $825 on a late dinner upon their arrival, but only $146 went to food. The rest of the bill included eight bottles of wine, eight glasses of wine, one whisky sour and nine bottles of sparkling and flat water.
Drink bills the following evening, peppered with bottles of wine, hard liquor and San Pellegrino, came to $635. On the lunch receipt the next day $181 went to three bottles of wine.
In all, fourteen Radio-Canada managers expensed 17 bottles and 28 glasses of wine in two days.
Kevin Gaudet, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said this kind of spending may not be a problem in the private sector but standards should be different for a public broadcaster.
"There are a lot of benefits that can be derived from doing off-site work, problem is this organization seems like it does it all the time," he said. "And it doesn't do it on the cheap ... They have such an ongoing demonstration of disregard for the spending of taxpayers' money that it is easy to get frustrated with this type of spending."
LAVISH RETREATS
Internal documents reveal CBC management continued to hold off-site meetings in four-star hotels during the fall of 2006 and the spring of 2007.
"Off-site meetings are held, occasionally, and are not common practice," wrote Dube, adding that CBC requests bids from various establishments to ensure the Crown corporation "receives the best rates for its meetings." Dube also noted that while off-site meetings are now kept to a minimum, the public broadcaster will consider using outside locations in some cases.
Documents show CBC's senior executives returned to lavish retreats in the Laurentians and Mont Tremblant in 2007. Expense claims for the luxurious Chateau Beauvallon came to $7,123.29, excluding the undisclosed cost of a limousine ride from Ottawa to Mont Tremblant.
A dinner for 12 at Tremblant's La Petite Cachee restaurant came to $1,135. The bill
http://www.ottawasun.com/news/canada/20 ... 1-sun.htmlThere's a lot of it. Time to sack the CBC!
CKA Super Elite 
I'm not eager to publish my manifesto right here.
