Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante is refunding more than $500 in wine purchased at taxpayer expense.
The wine was purchased during a dinner for 12 in Austria last spring when Plante led a delegation on a mission to Vienna in April to learn how that city handles social housing.
The dinner for 12 totaled $1,900, including $540 for eight bottles of wine. The bill didn’t appear on any expense reports.
The expense was discovered by the French media outlet Journal de Montreal through an access-to-information request.
City officials said they considered the dinner a “meet and greet” and therefore part of the mission, not a meal. Plante now admits that was a mistake, and the bill has been reimbursed.
While she would not give an interview to CTV News, her team said in a statement: “This was an extraordinary error made in good faith that has now been corrected.”
City Hall opposition leader Aref Salem said it shows the mayor is too loose with taxpayer money.
“She certainly tried to hide it,” he said. “The code of ethics for elected officials in the city – and we’ve had courses on this – it’s not allowed to reimburse alcohol, and it’s clear in the city. Everybody knows about it.”
On Monday, the president of City Hall’s executive committee resigned(opens in new tab) after allegations that she abused her expense account while heading the Office of Public Advocacy. Now the mayor is under scrutiny.
“The expenses are not large, but it’s the context,” said Michel Seguin, a professor of ethics and governance at UQAM.
Given that the city says finances are tight and taxes are expected to go up, spending taxpayer money on wine shows a lack of sensitivity, he said.
The mayor’s team said it has made efforts to streamline spending on international missions.
The Quebec Municipal Commission said it is investigating the alcohol purchases.
