WINNIPEG – Taxpayer dollars paid for more than 90 government staff members and Crown Corporation executives and employees to attend an $80 dollar per plate lunch the Premier was speaking at, according to documents obtained by opposition critics and released Friday.
Receipts show approximately $20,000 was spent on lunch tickets and sponsorships to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce event on December 4, 2014.
Progressive Conservative MLA Shannon Martin calls it a “questionable” use of taxpayer dollars.
The Tories had previously released numbers showing the NDP had paid for 45 government staff members to attend the lunch but new documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request show double that number of tickets were paid for with taxpayer dollars.
“99 people seems excessive,” says Martin who also questioned the timing and whether Premier Greg Selinger was trying to “stack” the audience in his favour.
The luncheon took place at the height of internal party turmoil on which Selinger’s leadership was publicly and repeatedly questioned.
Ten seats were purchased for the Priorities and Planning Committee of Cabinet.
Manitoba Public Insurance paid for nine tickets while Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries had ten as part of its annual corporate membership with the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.
Travel Manitoba paid $13,000 plus GST to sponsor the event; that sponsorship included ten seats.
A request for comment from Premier Greg Selinger’s office was not immediately returned Friday.
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