BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
Your Data Your Rights
When St. Catharines residents pay their municipal taxes, they expect those dollars to finance services, infrastructure and council supported programs that are deemed to be in the interest of the community. What they do not expect is for those funds to be spent in ways that are difficult to trace or buried in broad budget categories which prevents meaningful public oversight.
At a time when residents are facing record tax increases, the need for clear, accessible and transparent documentation, especially for discretionary accounts such as the mayor’s expenses, has never been more pressing.
In June of this year, after finding no records of Mayor Mat Siscoe’s detailed expenses, with only vague and broad budget lines that do not explain how the listed amounts are actually broken down and used, The Pointer filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request seeking his taxpayer-funded expense claims since taking office.
In many municipalities this detailed information is published proactively online, offering residents a higher degree of transparency and oversight into how discretionary public funds are spent.
Former mayor Walter Sendzik began posting detailed expense reporting online during the latter part of his tenure, a practice that improved public access to spending information. That effort toward transparency ended when Siscoe assumed office, leaving residents once again reliant on opaque summaries and FOI requests to understand how public funds are used.
Many municipalities in Ontario already practice proactive transparency by publishing detailed records of council and mayoral discretionary budgets online, allowing residents to easily see how their tax dollars are spent. Municipalities of different sizes such as North Bay, Toronto and Oakville provide this level of accessibility, setting a standard that St. Catharines has yet to meet.
When it comes to accountability and transparency with public funds, details matter. North Bay offers a clear example, and it unfortunately took an uravelling scandal for transparency to only recently be adopted after widespread public outrage: earlier this year, scrutiny of Mayor Peter Chirico’s corporate card revealed roughly $16,000 in charges for items such as dog food, tanning oil, cigarettes, golf fees and hockey tickets. These details only became public through FOI requests filed by residents, and the revelations triggered ongoing investigations by both the Integrity Commissioner and provincial police. Only because of the dogged work of residents did the mayor’s apparent abuse come to light. A bylaw has since been passed to have detailed expense spending reports for all council members published every quarter. The case underscores why proactive transparency is essential. Without detailed reporting, abuses are not only possible, they do occur.
In response to The Pointer’s FOI request for details on Mayor Siscoe’s expenses, St. Catharines officials denied direct access to the documents, explaining that instead they would be posted publicly within 90 days, the maximum allowed under provincial legislation. This approach is permitted under the province’s FOI rules, with the idea that the level of transparency expected by taxpayers to ensure they are protected from abuse, will be met by a broader disclosure to the general public.
On or around September 18—almost exactly 90 days after the FOI request was denied—the City published the mayor’s expenses online. The disclosure was underwhelming: monetary figures lumping costs together with little detail, no documentation of receipts or credit card statements, offering residents almost no meaningful insight into how public money was actually spent. The municipal site acknowledged the information was general and noted that ‘detailed breakdowns are forthcoming’ but gave no timeline.
The information released was so vague and poorly defined that meaningful scrutiny is impossible. How can residents properly assess compliance with spending rules when all they are given are topline figures? For example, the Travel & Transportation category lists $19,285.45 in 2023 and $6,193.77 in 2024—but without receipts or explanations, this information is useless. Were these taxpayer dollars spent on airfare, hotels, meals, conferences, or sightseeing and alcohol? The public has no way of knowing.
In North Bay, Mayor Chirico is facing a police investigation after the citizen-initiated FOI investigation revealed shocking expenses: a $1,604.60 golf membership at Osprey Links; charges for golf cart rentals at Osprey Links; $143.85 for three bottles of wine at the LCBO; meals during North Bay Battalion games; two 2022/23 Battalion season tickets that cost $1,166; the same two seats for the 2023/4 season that cost $1,200; towels and accessories from Home Sense that cost $136 and were marked as office supplies; $95 for car washes; another $100 for car washes; another $100.56 for car washes; $784 for a Battalion playoff package for two seats in 2023; $808 for the same two playoff seats in 2024; $293.78 for two Battalion hockey jerseys; dog treats that were eventually reimbursed; charges for individual golf rounds; a charge for car repairs (this was later reversed).
In 2014, former Brampton mayor Susan Fennell was booted out of office in a landslide election defeat after she expensed items including IQ tests and airport luggage carts, while charging taxpayers for lavish airfares, hotel stays and a 24/7 limousine service, on top of her taxpayer-funded Cadillac Escalade.
One example of questionable spending by Mayor Siscoe is his travel to Europe in October 2024. The mayor visited Paris, Belgium and Holland on a battlefield tour organized by the local Lincoln and Welland Regiment. Promotional materials describe the excursion as open to anyone able to pay $4,950 for the 14-day trip. Siscoe not only participated, he also expensed the trip to the city, as his predecessor had done five years earlier. Information on the trip was not released publicly, but was obtained by The Pointer through a separate FOI request filed approximately one year ago.
The documents revealed that, in addition to charging taxpayers for the excursion, the mayor also used public funds to purchase alcohol—which, according to the documents, was intended as a gift. This was in direct conflict with city rules.
Paragraph 7 of policy number ACAO-01-11 is unambiguous: “Ineligible expenses: Expenses that are not eligible for reimbursement include: alcohol.”
Yet alcohol was purchased using public funds. Whether it was consumed or given as a gift, both uses are ineligible under the policy. The key issue is not whether alcohol was bought for one reason or another, but why it was bought with public funds and how it was approved. Residents were left without an explanation, and the expense highlighted a breakdown in the City’s oversight process as well as the mayor’s adherence to governing policies.
The documents also revealed that, upon returning from Europe, the mayor reimbursed the City $2,450—exactly half of the $4,900 taxpayers had initially covered for the hotels and transportation. Siscoe has not responded to detailed questions about his spending or how he determined what qualified for public reimbursement. Was the trip considered city business? If so, in what way, and if it was city business then why would he repay $2,450?
The question now is whether this reflects a broader pattern of misuse and weak oversight, or a single case of poor judgment. It’s possible, according to the FOI documents, that taxpayers funded, at least in part, sightseeing and meetings unrelated to City business, along with the purchase of alcohol and gifts, expenses forbidden under City policy. The spending occurred as Siscoe and his council allies imposed record tax increases on St. Catharines property owners.
Residents cannot evaluate whether their money is being used appropriately when reports are vague, policies are inconsistently applied and budgets do not clearly show how or why travel is funded.
The onus should not be on the public to dig for the truth. In the absence of proper, detailed disclosures by City officials, The Pointer is planning more FOI requests for all details related to Mayor Siscoe’s expense claims since he took office. Stay tuned.
Email: ed.smith@thepointer.com
At a time when vital public information is needed by everyone, The Pointer has taken down our paywall on all stories to ensure every resident of Brampton, Mississauga and Niagara has access to the facts. For those who are able, we encourage you to consider a subscription. This will help us report on important public interest issues the community needs to know about now more than ever. You can register for a 30-day free trial HERE. Thereafter, The Pointer will charge $10 a month and you can cancel any time right on the website. Thank you
The Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) is a federally funded program to add coverage in under-covered areas or on under-covered issues. This content is created and submitted by participating publishers and is not edited. Access can also be gained by registering and logging in at: https://lji-ijl.ca
You can support trusted and verified news content like this.
FIPA’s news monitor subscribers, donors and funders help make these available to everyone rather than behind a paywall. We appreciate every contribution because it makes a difference.
If you found this article interesting and useful, please consider contributing here.
