Coquitlam officials under fire for ritzy Vancouver hotel stay
conference that was held just a short drive away in Vancouver.
Lou Sekora says he drove to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference, while taxpayers picked up the tab at the Fairmont Waterfront hotel for five other councillors and the Coquitlam mayor.
"It means only one thing," Sekora told CTV News. "You're spending money like it's a bottomless well."
The FCM conference attracted civic officials from across Canada. It's about a 30-kilometre drive to the conference facility from Coquitlam.
If someone booked a hotel room at the Fairmont Waterfront today, it would be $429 per night. Conference-goers got a discount to $225 .
Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart said the city paid about $4,000 altogether. He said that was worth the money for the extra chances to network and invite investment to the city.
"Each one of those nights I didn't get to my room until 11 or 12 and I had meetings at 7 in the morning. You could do it [without a hotel room], but you wouldn't get results," he said.
When asked if he could stay at a cheaper downtown hotel, Stewart said the hotel was connected to the conference.
"You have to be downtown, where connections are being made," he said.
Sekora didn't buy it.
"The convention finishes, and then it's party time. Pour me about 14 drinks and we'll 'network,' " he said.
Of the cities that returned calls from CTV News, Abbotsford and Maple Ridge said four and three councillors stayed in hotels for the conference respectively.
But closer to the city, Langley Township said the four attendees spent one night each in a hotel. Port Coquitlam said one of the five attendees stayed in the hotel.
No Burnaby officials stayed in a hotel. New Westminster Mayor Wayne Wright stayed in the Pan Pacific Hotel on the taxpayer tab, but four other attendees from the city did not.
Only New Westminster Councillor Betty McIntosh paid for her own hotel room.
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Coquitlam's mayor and some councillors are under fire for a stay in a ritzy downtown hotel during the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) convention, despite living only about a half hour away.
Mayor Richard Stewart and four councillors are facing criticism from Coun. Lou Sekora for billing taxpayers $225 a night to stay in the Fairmont Waterfront hotel, when Sekora drove to the conference every day, CTV News reported.
"It means only one thing ... You're spending money like it's a bottomless well," Sekora told the network.
The normal room rate is $429 per night, but conference attendees got a discount, the network reported.
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Five Coquitlam politicians took part in a pricey weekend junket by staying at Vancouver hotels when their own beds were just 45 minutes away.
Coquitlam Coun. Lou Sekora has blown the whistle on his colleagues’ $225-per-night accommodations while they attended a municipal conference.
“There’s no two ways about it. Taxpayers are treated as a bottomless well. Councillors and mayors have got to come down to Earth,” he said.
Some 2,000 municipal politicians from across Canada attended the four-day Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference to discuss civic business on the weekend.
The conference occurred in the wake of a new report that criticized ever-growing municipal taxes. The report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business showed an average 55-per-cent increase in property taxes over the last 12 years, several times the rate of increases from population growth and inflation.
Sekora, who commuted to the conference by car, criticized his colleagues for taking rooms at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel when Coquitlam is only about 45 minutes away.
“The taxpayers are taxed and taxed. They’re sick and tired. This was an open ticket to blow as much money as they wanted to,” he said. “Complaints go in one ear and out the other. Sharing a cab or carpooling would have been very simple. I could have taken threepeople.”
Coquitlam politicians staying overnight included councillors Mae Reid, Terry O’Neill, Neal Nicholson and Craig Hodge; and Mayor Richard Stewart.
Stewart said he anticipated criticism, but said “enormous benefits” were reaped by being close by.
“Staying downtown wasn’t a hundred-fold better, it was a thousand fold better,” he said. “I would much rather have slept at home, but $100 million in senior government funding wouldn’t have come our way (in past years) if we hadn’t been able to build these relationships. It’s not a social conference, it’s a working conference.
“You end up attending sporadically if you’re not staying downtown. Days ended at midnight and began again at 7 a.m.”
Hodge said the full value of the $770 conference fee was only realized by being present all the time.
“Councillors driving back and forth were picking and choosing. We’re paying for the functions. They were all wrapped up in the price of a ticket,” he said.
Hodge said Coquitlam has kept tax increases to around three per cent the last two years, lower than the cost of inflation and population growth.
Surrey politicians, including Mayor Dianne Watts and four councillors, also chose to stay at a downtown Vancouver hotel during the FCM instead of commuting over the Port Mann or jumping on a SkyTrain.
Coun. Barinder Rasode said she understands municipal spending is scrutinized because it uses taxpayers dollars, but said the expense is an investment: “It gave us an opportunity to work much longer hours and focus on the issues at hand.”
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie said he chose to use the Canada Line to commute to the convention, but says how far away and how busy politicians are can change the equation.
“I was on the convention committee four years ago, and I was working from early in the morning to late at night, so I stayed downtown,” said Brodie. “You look at Surrey — someone might live right by the border, and that’s a long way back and forth each day.”
Brodie said one Richmond councillor chose to stay in a Vancouver hotel, but picked up the hotel tab herself.
No one from the City of North Vancouver’s delegation splurged on downtown accommodations.
Mayor Darrell Mussatto said he and other councillors made the commute on the SeaBus every day, utilizing the free transit pass provided by event organizers.
But he said he could see why attendees from farther municipalities like Coquitlam or Langley would decide to stay downtown.
The city of Vancouver did not have a budget for hotel stays or travel for delegates because conference events were held in Vancouver, said spokeswoman Viviana Zanocco.
# Coquitlam Councillor Lou Sekora blew the whistle Monday on fellow Coquitlam politicians who chose to stay in pricey downtown hotels last weekend for a national municipal government conference rather than commuting from Coquitlam like he did.
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