 elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1 | Entitled to their entitlements The Sun has posted a list of expenses by the execs of the Pan Am Games. I swear I'm in the wrong career these guys have it made, sucking off the taxpayer teat like it's no tommorow.
They make the senators and their largesse look like an amateur hour.
A couple snippets.
Ian Troop, CEO
Feb. 23, 2011: Romagna Mia Sr. Team Strategy dinner - $702.46 (Italian Pizza place in Woodbridge)
March 21, 2011: Change fee for flight to Ottawa - $226.00 + $56.50 service fee (oh he changed his mind and we get to pay for it).
Dec. 17, 2012: Parking at the Hamilton Spectator - $0.91 (seriously 91c!!)
Allen Vansen, Senior VP Operations
une and July 2010: Total cost to relocate from Vancouver - $27,305.62. Includes: $110.25 to transfer pet; $53.76 to forward mail to T.O.; $2,507.82 hotel bill in Toronto for 12 days and $2,319.84 in flights; $630.04 for car rental and $400 in incidental expenses during house hunt
May 24, 2012: Recruitment dinner with potential staffer - $81.36
Bob O’Doherty, Senior VP Sports and Venues
June 14, 2011: Guadalajara pre-visit airfare/hotel - $2,023.65
Aug. 8, 2011: Guadalajara pre-meeting - $2,047.50 (wtf is a pre meeting and visit)
Katherine Henderson, Senior VP Marketing and Revenue
Oct. 18, 2010: No receipt for hotel charges in Acapulco - $704.10
Nov. 1, 2010: No receipt for hotel charges in Guadalajara - $154.12
Dec. 7, 2010: Lost receipt for lunch meeting with Luminato official - $31.12
March 28, 2011: Lost receipt for parking at TD meeting - $22.12
If I have no receipt, I lose.
»www.torontosun.com/2013/09/28/li···ecutives
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No, I didn't. Honest... I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake....... |
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| It's nice that the 2015 Pan Am games will be in Toronto, but otherwise....
How important are these games? They've made no impact on my consciousness all these years.... |
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NCRGuy
join:2008-03-03
Ottawa, ON | reply to elwoodblues
Only thing questionable I see in any of those are the series of expenses reimbursed without receipts. It's not uncommon for an occasional receipt to get lost and for the expense to be reimbursed with a signed declaration. But for it to happen habitually, that becomes an area of concern.
Otherwise they all sound like legitimate expenses. |
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elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1
1 edit | It's not a question of legitimate, I'm sure they all are, it's the largesse
Oh come on, you fly down to Mexico for a pre meeting and fly back down for the actual one. Can you do it on the phone? Skype?
I need to add, for most of us here, if we buy something or have an expense with no or a lost receipt, we're out of pocket. PERIOD. |
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 DKSDamn Kidney StonesPremium,ExMod 2002
join:2001-03-22
Owen Sound, ON
kudos:2 | said by elwoodblues:It's not a question of legitimate, I'm sure they all are, it's the largesse
Oh come on, you fly down to Mexico for a pre meeting and fly back down for the actual one. Can you do it on the phone? Skype?
I need to add, for most of us here, if we buy something or have an expense with no or a lost receipt, we're out of pocket. PERIOD.
Don't know much about business, eh? All of those look like legit expenses. Relocation costs are also a regular compensated expense. In my own case, my moving expenses are always 100% compensated.
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Need-based health care not greed-based health care. |
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| Have to agree. Those expenses look realistic.
However, no receipt should be no reimbursement. This is standard, but there seems to be a special exemption for that one person. That should be looked into. The expenses are great, but this is normally standard policy... |
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Reviews:
 ·callwithus
·Callcentric
| said by [shrugs :]Have to agree. Those expenses look realistic.
To my mind, more important than the actual amounts or the lost receipts, is that the executives seem to have no self-control.
To hearken back to WW2, they need to be asking (and need to be asked):
[Was this trip really necessary?]
Especially in an internetted and Skyped world. |
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 neochu
join:2008-12-12
Windsor, ON
1 edit | said by Gershom 1624:said by [shrugs :]Have to agree. Those expenses look realistic.
To my mind, more important than the actual amounts or the lost receipts, is that the executives seem to have no self-control. To hearken back to WW2, they need to be asking (and need to be asked): [Was this trip really necessary?] Especially in an internetted and Skyped world. You should know buisness and politics go together. Kissing ass to get an international event into a city and coordinating the resources invovles lots of money.
Its called a bonding session and it involves 5 star resort treatment, luxurious recreational activities and lots of other events to convince your client your worth investing in. Pre-meeting is to prep your client for the main conference and allows some "one-on-one" time
Chances are with a venue like that it wasn't a simple matter of an online collaboration on some mid-level project. It may have involved direct contact with people whom have high expectations. |
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Reviews:
·callwithus
·Callcentric
| said by neochu:Its called a bonding session and it involves 5 star resort treatment, luxurious recreational activities and lots of other events to convince your client your worth investing in. Pre-meeting is to prep your client for the main conference and allows some "one-on-one" time.
Is that a bonding session or a bondage session?  |
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neochu
join:2008-12-12
Windsor, ON | Is that a bonding session or a bondage session?
TBH though Im thinking more akin to Bell treating CTRC members out for private golf on world class country clubs before a major decision. Pre-meetings are when the real negotiations happen. |
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 Link LoggerPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-29
Calgary, AB
kudos:3 | reply to elwoodblues
Actually I was thinking that looks pretty cheap, but typical of business expenses. I'm surprised there aren't realtor fees etc included with that relocation.
Blake
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Vendor: Author of Link Logger which is a traffic analysis and firewall logging tool |
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neochu
join:2008-12-12
Windsor, ON | said by Link Logger:Actually I was thinking that looks pretty cheap, but typical of business expenses. I'm surprised there aren't realtor fees etc included with that relocation.
Blake
The individual is probably renting a condo somehwere and that 27 grand is for setting up the contract. |
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Reviews:
·callwithus
·Callcentric
| reply to neochu
said by neochu:TBH though Im thinking more akin to Bell treating CTRC members out for private golf on world class country clubs before a major decision.
That's allowed ?! |
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neochu
join:2008-12-12
Windsor, ON | said by Gershom 1624:said by neochu:TBH though Im thinking more akin to Bell treating CTRC members out for private golf on world class country clubs before a major decision.
That's allowed ?! you are funny. I think it is pretty much accepted on these two boards on this website that it does.
weither its allowed or not who knows.
Remember the Pan Am games committee is funded by the taxpayer. |
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| reply to elwoodblues
said by elwoodblues:It's not a question of legitimate, I'm sure they all are, it's the largesse
Oh come on, you fly down to Mexico for a pre meeting and fly back down for the actual one. Can you do it on the phone? Skype?
I need to add, for most of us here, if we buy something or have an expense with no or a lost receipt, we're out of pocket. PERIOD.
be patient, if someone kicks a fuss there will be a inquiry...and then they will come up with a cheaper way, have meeting in a strip joint...no receipt required. |
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neochu
join:2008-12-12
Windsor, ON | said by jaberi:be patient, if someone kicks a fuss there will be a inquiry...and then they will come up with a cheaper way, have meeting in a strip joint...no receipt required.
They did actually.
»www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/···ses.html
But it was for the fees under $20. Not for the pre-meeting golf outings and "games" in the mexican resort.
Yet at least.
Though if its a power priv and politics for those (laundry -- who knows) you wont see any fuss beyond $25.
Those who have employment where your out of town enough to have to use expensive hotel laundry services may have more insight. |
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| lol there you are....they will have them all accountable for every cent...and they can bring their dirty laundry home...next thing you know they will be declaring the upkeep for 2 residences...put them in check now, before they become like pammy and duffy. |
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neochu
join:2008-12-12
Windsor, ON
2 edits | said by jaberi:lol there you are....they will have them all accountable for every cent...and they can bring their dirty laundry home...next thing you know they will be declaring the upkeep for 2 residences...put them in check now, before they become like pammy and duffy.
How many times to you bring a full weeks of clothes to a 7 or 10 day conference out of town and not be able to claim excess baggage fees.
The baggage overages must be huge, much bigger then a laundry bill in fact. not to mention expensive and heavy luxury gifts as "souviners" from your country.
Though like I said these poeple live in a world we will never see. and host poeple with excessive expectations.
If you want something like this kind of event It means making expensive dinners and going to expensive exotic places. Otherwise somone who lavashes your committee members the most. will get it instead of you.
You think the Pan Am is bad. you should see the cost of getting the olympics. That just isnt including the building though.
I suspect give it a few days and it'll disappear. It'll be a 'do as I say not as I do' thing when it comes down to a "don't spend the taxpayer money if you don't want the event" thing. |
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elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1 | reply to elwoodblues
Looks like I'm not the only person(s) who don;'t think they're entitled to their entitlements.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne blew her stack when she found out (guess she doesn't read the Sun on weekends).
“It’s ridiculous, okay? I’m just going to say it is ridiculous,” Ms. Wynne told reporters on Monday. “I believe that it is the kind of entitlement that is unacceptable. I don’t believe it should happen.”
If things don’t change, then it’s going to be hard for me to support the PanAm Games,” Mr. Ford said on Monday, singling out Mr. Troop, who submitted the parking expense. “If he can’t do the job, I think we should look at other people.
At Queen’s Park, Progressive Conservative MPP Rod Jackson said the auditor-general should be called in and executives forced to repay the expenses. Mr. Ford said he, too, had written to the city’s auditor to ask about a review.
Over at the National Post, Kelly McParland writes how a 91c parking expense (from a person who makes over 500K a year) is about to claim another victim.
Ian Troop, who heads the Games team and made $552,000 in 2011 maintains the charges were within the rules, which is exactly the problem. Ms. Oda wasn’t breaking any rules when she billed for her orange juice, and Sen. Pamela Wallin insists she too was within the regulations when she ran up more than $532,000 in travel bills.
These people can’t all be stupid. And they’re probably all basically honest. The problem is with the financial flabbiness of the system in which they operate, and the fact that public money isn’t treated with the same respect as private money.
There’s a reason these horror stories usually relate to the public sector. In the private sector anyone submitting ridiculous expense accounts would get flagged by some eagle-eyed accountant, called into the boss’s office and told to pay for their own Choco Bites or find a new job.
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No, I didn't. Honest... I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake....... |
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| the gifts that keep on giving and taking eh. |
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Reviews:
·callwithus
·Callcentric
| reply to elwoodblues
said by elwoodblues:Over at the National Post, Kelly McParland writes how a 91c parking expense (from a person who makes over 500K a year) is about to claim another victim.
Where can you incur a parking expense of 91 cents, that's what I am curious about! 
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But seriously, the fundamental problem is not greed or dishonesty, but rather lack of shame and lack of embarrassment.
I'd be [embarrassed] to bill for $3.99 for Choco Bites (if I was already getting paid $2,700.00 a day as a consultant).
And as a PRACTICAL matter, I have to eat no matter where I am.
So even in my own house on my own time, I'd probably eat some ChocoBites and drink some Orange Juice....
At MOST, the person should be paid the [difference] between eating on the road and eating at their own home....
But NOT the whole cost of food, because at home they'd be paying for their own food anyway.
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Tangentially it reminds me that US astronauts get paid [less] when in space, because their room and board is being provided by the government.  |
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elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1 | That's exactly it a lack of shame and embarssement.
we had a cabinet minister who.resigjned when her outrageous expense claims became public. |
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 IanPremium
join:2002-06-18
ON
kudos:2
 ·Rogers Hi-Speed
| reply to elwoodblues
McParland had more today.
»fullcomment.nationalpost.com/201···-matter/
"Newspapers love to make a big deal out of outlandish expense claims precisely because they realize it gets up the nose of people who don't like being taken advantage of, and are tired of the sense of entitlement that seizes people when they start tapping into the public treasury. People want to be treated with respect. Billing them for your laundry is not a show of respect."
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“Any claim that the root of a problem is simple should be treated the same as a claim that the root of a problem is Bigfoot. Simplicity and Bigfoot are found in the real world with about the same frequency.” – David Wong |
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elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1 | This is just the tip of the iceberg, I wonder how long he's going last.
A few more stories/columns, it'll be enough for Wynne. |
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elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1 | reply to Gershom 1624
said by Gershom 1624:At MOST, the person should be paid the [difference] between eating on the road and eating at their own home....
How do you establish that? Am I eating a ham and cheese sandwich at home which costs a buck or so, and on the road I'll have a burger/fries/drink (lets leave booze out), that can cost up to $15?
Or do I eat Filet Mignon at home with the trimmings might cost me say $10(I honestly don't know), but on the road it costs me $100?
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No, I didn't. Honest... I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake....... |
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 eksterHi there
join:2010-07-16
Lachine, QC
kudos:2
·FreePhoneLine
 ·TekSavvy DSL
| reply to elwoodblues
Gets a bit more interesting on how they do their business.
»www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/1···.1875188
"Anger over high-paid officials with Toronto's Pan Am Games billing taxpayers for cups of tea turned to outrage Tuesday after Ontario's opposition parties learned there are two budgets for the event, neither of which includes money for the athletes' village.
[...] Michael Chan said the $1.4 billion budget for TO2015 does not include $10 million for the provincial Pan Am Secretariat, or the $709 million being spent on housing for the athletes." |
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elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1 | I just saw this
The minister clashed repeatedly with New Democrat Paul Miller over whether or not Chan had actually approved the expense policy for TO2015, which allows the CEO and CFO to approve each others' claims
WOW isn't there anyone watching where our money goes.
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No, I didn't. Honest... I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake....... |
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IanPremium
join:2002-06-18
ON
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| reply to elwoodblues
"It takes a special kind of Liberal incompetence to have two sets of books, neither of which are showing $700 million or more for the athletes' village," said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath. "It's unbelievable."
I don't find myself agreeing with NDP leaders too often......
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“Any claim that the root of a problem is simple should be treated the same as a claim that the root of a problem is Bigfoot. Simplicity and Bigfoot are found in the real world with about the same frequency.” – David Wong |
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Reviews:
·callwithus
·Callcentric
| reply to elwoodblues
said by elwoodblues:said by Gershom 1624:At MOST, the person should be paid the [difference] between eating on the road and eating at their own home....
How do you establish that? Your CRA can figure out all sorts of things.
Just as an example:
»www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs···eng.html
So if they come up with something like a lunch at home costing an average of $5, then if someone has a receipt for lunch on a business trip costing $20, that person should be reimbursed $15 not the full $20.
If the person doesn't like that arrangement, let them do some useful work instead of arranging some silly games. |
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elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1 | reply to Ian
It's funny, you think they would learn from Ehealth and Ornge, but NOOOO
But at the same time, this is just a sign of typical government bs I don't care who the party is, one only has to look at the the Conservatives in Ottawa to see it crosses all party lines.
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No, I didn't. Honest... I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake....... |
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