Muhammad Hamza, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Pointer

In a city strapped for cash, where vital infrastructure projects have been cancelled or stalled for years under Mayor Patrick Brown, whose own spending has skyrocketed despite claims of fiscal belt tightening, the globetrotting by council members and staff continues to frustrate Brampton taxpayers forced to pay for these lavish trips.

There is little public information about the travel and hardly any explanation for the constant overseas trips to places like Germany, India, Egypt, the Philippines and Taiwan. The benefits to Brampton taxpayers are hard to find, and no one inside City Hall, including Brown (who has taken dozens and dozens of trips since becoming mayor, without much transparency to show taxpayers what they are getting in return) wants to explain why a municipal government would be doing the type of work usually handled by the provinces and Ottawa. 

The Pointer’s dive into documents obtained through freedom of information (FOI) requests has revealed an open-wallet approach by council members and staff, a pattern repeated for every trip, to places like Michigan, Tokyo and Manila, and many other parts of the world.

The first investigation detailed Councillor Gurpartap Toor’s travel to Detroit in October 2023. He was to gather information to help transform Brampton’s struggling downtown core into the aspirational “innovation district” promised six years ago by Brown, who has failed to deliver on his promise. The three-day trip cost the city’s taxpayers approximately $8,000.

The lack of transparency to the taxpayers who paid for the lavish getaway (a 60 percent tip for an Uber fare; and $2,160 for two plane tickets to fly 350 kilometres) is part of a pattern of unchecked spending. 

This was mirrored in a 2023 trip to Taiwan.

In March of 2023, Councillor Paul Vicente flew to Taipei, Taiwan, along with Andrew Bacchus, the City’s Economic Development Advisor. None of the documents provided by Brampton staff under the freedom of information request  include a reason for sending one member of council and one City Hall employee to Taiwan. This is unusual. 

A previous investigation completed by The Pointer into a $20,000 taxpayer funded trip to Tokyo and Manila by Councillor Rowena Santos and two staff members, found economic development staff will typically create detailed itineraries of meetings and appointments for the councillors and staff members taking part in these trips (although these details for the Tokyo and Manila itinerary were heavily redacted, leaving the purpose and who was in attendance at many of the meetings a mystery). 

No itineraries were provided for the Taiwan trip. 

A letter written by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office to the City of Brampton, describes a “bilateral exchange between Brampton and Taiwan,” with no explanation, and a cheque for $1,000 (US) attached as reimbursement for part of Vicente’s travel.

Uber trips taken by Bacchus while in Taipei City show he frequently moved between the The Howard Plaza Hotel, and the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center. Between March 28 and 31, 2023 the exhibition centre was host to the 2023 Smart City Expo. These details were not provided by the City of Brampton. 

A photo found on the website for the National Centre for High-performance Computing happened to include a man who clearly appears to be Councillor Vicente in attendance at the expo. 

It’s unclear why this information was kept out of the documents provided by the City of Brampton and not shared publicly in press releases and on council agendas (as is commonly done), to provide clarity and transparency to the taxpayers who paid for the trip.

Councillor Vicente did not respond to questions. 

Hotel costs for Bacchus and Vicente are also omitted from the documents shared by the City of Brampton. Receipts for Uber trips show Bacchus frequently departed and returned from the Howard Plaza Hotel, and an unreadable receipt shared as part of the responsive documents from the City appears to be a receipt for the hotel, but the price is too blurry to know how much was paid. This type of shoddy record keeping and production of receipts to show how the taxpayers’ money was used and whether municipal policies were followed, is frowned upon by audit and tax experts who often review such expense documentation. 

The receipts show the lion’s share of the expenditure is for the airfare: $8,720. A one-way flight from Taipei to Lisbon for Vicente was billed at $3,102.26 on Emirates (no information was provided to explain why he flew on an expensive airline, why he booked a one-way ticket and why Vicente went to Portugal; his background is Portuguese). His total flight charges via “Anglo-Scottish American Travel Agency”, according to receipts, were $5,594, including the Toronto to Taipei leg ($1,199.16) and one-way return flight from Lisbon to Toronto ($1,223.25).

There is no explanation or documentation from the City about why Vicente was in Portugal as part of the taxpayer-funded trip. 

The cost of flights for Bacchus totalled $3,125.86.

Expenses for Uber and cab services accounted for $263.58, while some other receipts are unreadable.

Some costs are missing receipts, including FOI documents for hotel stays and spending on meals and drinks. Despite indication that money was spent on such costs the receipts were not provided by City staff, raising transparency concerns about why the FOI department has consistently kept information from the public under Brown’s leadership.

The city’s taxpayers do not know which officials in Taiwan Vicente and Bacchus met with, or what measurable outcomes the trip created for Brampton. There is no information detailing any foreign company committing any investment or the number of job opportunities created in Brampton, if any.

Councillor Vicente made an unusual reimbursement of $1,732.14 via Interac transfer for flight costs to a bank whose name has been redacted in an invoice document. If the money was reimbursed by Vicente, or another party, it’s unclear why this was done or what date the transaction was completed. 

The Pointer sent multiple emails to Councillor Vicente asking if any other entity has covered this cost, and requested the full details of accounting entries to explain the transaction.

He was also asked about missing hotel invoices and why he flew to Portugal (Vicente’s family is from Portugal), which alone cost $3,102.26 in airfare. The Pointer asked what the purpose of the trip was, and for the itinerary of scheduled meetings during the travel.

Vicente did not respond.

It is unusual for a municipal government to undertake such extensive travel all around the world. Provincial and federal officials generally lead efforts to attract foreign investment and create economic development partnerships globally.

Hundreds of pages of itineraries, travel records and receipts obtained by The Pointer reveal a troubling pattern of loose spending under Brown’s leadership and a lack of transparency that undermines public trust in municipal elected officials.

Noah Jarvis, the Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, lambasted Councillor Vicente’s Taiwan mission, calling it a blatant misuse of taxpayers’ money.

“Councillor Vicente billing taxpayers nearly $9,000 on a trip to Taiwan, pretending to be a diplomat while delivering no real results, is unacceptable,” he said.

“Taxpayers elect municipal councillors to serve the interests of their region. But Brampton city councillors are continuously hiking your taxes while spending taxpayer dollars on lavish trips abroad.”

Jarvis added that elected officials must show taxpayers the tangible outcomes of the trips prior to charging them thousands of dollars.

“Councillors shouldn’t be wasting taxpayer dollars on foreign junkets that accomplish nothing,” he said.

“Before billing taxpayers for lavishly expensive trips, councillors should be required to demonstrate the tangible benefit such a trip would produce for city residents. Until then, Councillor Vicente needs to reimburse taxpayers for all costs associated with his expedition to Taiwan.”

The list of questionable travel spending by members of Brampton Council and staff in 2023 alone, includes:

• March 30, 2023, $3,102.26 for a one-way flight from Taipei to Lisbon
• October 1, 2023, $15.17 for a medium latte and cranberry muffin at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. ($11.16 USD)
• October 8, 2023, $6.99 for a bottle of Fiji water at Pearson International Airport
• October 8, 2023, $2,458.95 for a return flight to San Francisco
• October 12, 2023, $6.86 for an Uber tip (60%) on an $11.47 fare in Detroit ($5 USD tip on an $8.36 USD fare) 
• October 9, 2023, $17.21 at the Anaheim, California Marriott for a coffee, almond bar, and a pack of Trident gum ($12.67 USD)
• October 12, 2023, $53.86 at Shake Shack in Detroit for a burger (on a gluten-free bun), a shroom burger, spicy cheese fries, and a Coke ($39.25 USD)

Numerous hotel stays for council members and staff were charged at rates between $500 and $900 a night. The trip to Detroit included hotel accommodations for someone not identified in any of the City documents. 

Lavish air travel ($2,156.74 for two return tickets to Detroit, which is a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Brampton; almost $2,500 for one return ticket to San Francisco) routinely at more than double the cost of basic economy fares, were also paid for by Brampton taxpayers.  

Email: muhammad.hamza@thepointer.com

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