Ontario Liberals Spent $50K on High-End Restaurants

Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca‘s former riding association has spent thousands of dollars in hospitality charges during his six years in government on expensive dinners at upscale restaurants.

The breaking report by Global News reads as following:

"Global News reviewed years of riding association annual filings housed at Elections Ontario’s headquarters in Scarborough and discovered more than $50,000 in hospitality expenses charged to Del Duca’s Vaughan-Woodbridge riding between 2013 and 2018, when Del Duca served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Finance, Minister of Transportation and Minister of Economic Development and Growth.

During that period, when Del Duca earned between $130,000 to $165,000 per year as an MPP and cabinet minister, the constituency filed between $5,000 and $11,000 each year in sit-down dinner expenses that the party is defending as “legitimate.”

The report goes on.

"Riding associations typically have two sources of income: donor support, of which a portion is refunded through a provincial tax credit, and a yearly per-vote subsidy parties receive from taxpayers.

The issue of politicians charging their riding associations for expenses was raised during the election campaign after Global News reported eight Progressive Conservative MPPs were given constituency allowances while also receiving a taxpayer-funded salary, which Del Duca criticized as “troubling.”

The full report can be read here.