Calgary MP says Liberal government wasted millions on quarantine hotel stays
A Calgary-area MP is questioning why the federal government spent almost $7 million last year for a quarantine hotel in the city that only 15 people stayed at.
Michelle Rempel Garner has been a critic of the quarantine hotels since day one.
She now says the amount of money spent on them is wasteful – so wasteful heads should roll.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the federal government set up quarantine hotels in four Canadian cities with operating international airports.
In Calgary, it spent close to $27 million over the next two and a half years to use the Westin Calgary Airport hotel.
Through the last half of the fiscal year in 2020, it spent $8.9 million here and housed 119 travellers.
In the 2021-22 fiscal year that jumped to $11.13 million but so did the number of people – up to 1,356.
Then, last year up to October when the program ended, it spent $6.79 million but only housed 15 travellers.
"This is gross mismanagement and waste," Rempel Garner said.
Rempel Garner says when she saw the price paid in 2022 for using the hotel, which works out to just over $450,000 per traveller, she was stunned.
"Think about that amount of money. You know, (it) could be used, especially in Calgary, to buy a house." Rempel Garner said.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation wants answers.
"People really are having a difficult time affording the necessities and then you hear just these examples of extreme waste coming from Ottawa, and I think that's going to hurt for many Canadians who are struggling," said Franco Terrazzano with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
When tracked down by CTV, the federal transportation minister said the government was facing an unprecedented crisis and placed a higher value on saving lives than on saving money.
"The public health measures that we put in place saved thousands of lives," Transportation Minister Omar Alghabra said.
"Of course, we have time to look back and learn from those lessons, but at the time we did what we felt was necessary to protect the health and safety of Canadians."
In the House of Commons, Rempel Garner grilled the federal health minister.
"How many other hotels did this happen at? And has anybody been fired for this waste?" she asked during question period.
"Our primary responsibility has been and remains to protect the safety and the health of Canadians, including the tens of thousands of people who had to access the designated quarantine facilities," Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said.
Not all this money actually went to the Westin hotel chain.
Some of it went to other businesses over the two and a half years.
Here in Calgary, the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires got $1.7 million.
The Red Cross, close to $1.5 million.
And Winmar, a cleaning company, received $1.14 million.
Aaron Paramedical and Fenton Bus Services also got small sums.
How much money was spent on quarantine hotels in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal is not yet known, nor how many people stayed at them.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Bob Cole, veteran CBC broadcaster and former voice of 'Hockey Night in Canada,' dead at 90
Bob Cole, legendary CBC broadcaster and former voice of Hockey Night in Canada, has died. He was 90.
Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction overturned by N.Y. appeals court
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
CTE: Researchers believe widespread brain injury may contribute to veteran suicide rate
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
New deep-water channel allows first ship to pass Key bridge wreckage in Baltimore
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.