Ontario city spent more than $1.7K on Ubers during 10-day trade trip to Italy

Vaughan, Ont., officials racked up tens of thousands in costs for an investment trip to Italy two years ago, Global News has learned, with business meetings, sightseeing and a winery tour part of a mission where more than $1,700 was expensed for Ubers.

New documents obtained after a protracted freedom of information negotiation with the City of Vaughan shed light on a 10-day European trip in the summer of 2024.

They show the international trade mission had six attendees head overseas from the Toronto-area municipality, running a tab of thousands of dollars to try to bring investment back to Ontario.

Deputy Mayor Linda Jackson and Coun. Mario Ferri were the two elected officials who went on the mission. They were joined by Jackson’s executive assistant and three municipal staffers from Vaughan’s economic development department.

According to hundreds of pages of receipts, calendars, emails and credit card statements, the trade mission left from Toronto Pearson International Airport on July 3, 2024.

The group visited a town in Lazio before travelling to Milan, ending their trip in Rome and returning home 10 days after they left.

The expenditures reviewed by Global News offer an insight into a trip where the Vaughan delegation hailed taxis to travel distances of less than two kilometres, spent thousands on a chartered bus and was scheduled to take time for sightseeing.

Officials and councillors also met with a series of local businesses, Italian elected officials and business groups like chambers of commerce.

“It just doesn’t seem like a good use of these councillors’ time and a good use of money to fund these meetings,” Noah Jarvis, Ontario director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said.

“I don’t know why they couldn’t just have a Zoom call. Zoom is pretty popular, we’ve been using it for six years since 2020. I’m not sure why they couldn’t use Zoom.”

The City of Vaughan defended the trip and the leads it had generated.

“The City believes the mission was productive in advancing both economic and cultural development, in addition to intergovernmental objectives,” a spokesperson wrote in response to questions from Global News.

“The mission resulted in engagement with several companies and trade, investment and economic development organizations, while strengthening relationships with national government representatives and partners in Sora, Milan and Verona. It also created new opportunities to support trade, investment and talent development initiatives.”

The city said the total budget for the trip was $120,000, which included $30,000 in federal funding. Some expenses were also paid from councillors’ expense accounts.

The records show that, over the course of the 10-day trip, the Vaughan delegation spent close to $2,000 booking Ubers to take them around Milan and Rome.

Receipts reviewed by Global News list a range of Uber journeys associated with the trip at a cost of more than $1,700, including some journeys of three kilometres or less and one $22 penalty for cancelling a ride.

Throughout the 2024 summer trip to Italy, staff and the councillors appear to have relied heavily on the ride-hailing service.

On July 10, for example, the group expensed $31.79 for a 900-metre Uber near Rome’s main train station. The receipt shows the ride took four minutes for a journey Google Maps says would take about five minutes to walk.

“It was about 32 bucks for a 900-metre Uber ride,” Jarvis said. “I mean, clearly these councillors weren’t really trying very hard when it came to being frugal with how they’re billing taxpayers.”

Three days later, the delegation booked a $54.84 Uber to travel 1.8 kilometres in the same area. They also expensed $77.34 to travel 2.2 kilometres near the Tiber River.

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Other Uber rides on the mission cost substantially more.

On July 13, the Canadian visitors took a 30-kilometre, 41-minute trip back to the airport for just over $185, while a 19-kilometre Uber in Milan cost $139.61.

Another trip labelled in the documents as “dinner to hotel” cost $112.69.

“Ground transportation was arranged to ensure mission delegates could get to and from engagements on time,” the City of Vaughan wrote in response to questions.

“No policy prohibits this type of use.”

The receipts for the Ubers show they were all booked by members of the trade delegation, although it is not clear from the documents who took part in each ride.

Elsewhere, the delegation travelled from Rome to Milan and back by train and expensed thousands of dollars in airfare to get from Toronto to Rome.

Staff also paid $4,247.46 to charter a bus for several days.

Calendars, schedules and itineraries included in the documents released to Global News also shed some light on what the two councillors and city staff were scheduled to do during their 10-day trip to Italy.

The first stop on the mission, after landing in Rome, was a trip to the historic town of Sora, a municipality nestled in Lazio which has had a friendship agreement with Vaughan since 1992.

Once they had arrived in Sora, the delegation was meant to take part in a working dinner before turning in for the night. Schedules prepared for the trip said they spent the following day in meetings, at a brunch and renewing the agreement between the two towns.

The next morning, the delegation was scheduled to go on a tour to visit the local museum, library, a church and a cathedral. Then they were supposed to take part in a workshop on Ciammella, a ring-shaped Italian cake. Next, the delegation was scheduled to have lunch and take part in “traditional pasta tastings.”

After lunch, the Vaughan delegation’s itinerary had them continue their tour of the town, visiting more churches, an abbey and a paper mill. The second full day of the trade mission was set to conclude with an aperitif by a local lake and a period of “unstructured time” in the town.

A spokesperson for Vaughan said the pasta tasting and cake workshop ultimately did not take place.

“This proposed agenda item by Sora officials did not take place,” they wrote, pointing to a public report about the trip.

The report included few details of how the delegation spent its time in the city.

“During the 2024 mission to Sora, the City of Vaughan delegation met with Sora’s Mayor and Council and renewed the friendship agreement under-delegated authority from Council to the Deputy Mayor,” it read.

“The delegation solidified the existing partnership and crafted a list of partnership opportunities to further cement the relationship.”

The city also sent Global News a daily memo of events in response to questions. The document appeared to reference more local meetings rather than tours, but did not include an hour-by-hour schedule of events like the ones released through freedom of information.

The following day, July 7, calendars show the Vaughan delegation was scheduled to leave the town, head back to Rome and then take a train to Milan.

In the north, the group was set to meet more local businesses and chambers of commerce.

Among the events was a meeting with the restaurant group Eataly — which already has multiple locations across Toronto — to convince them to open a Vaughan store. The delegation also toured Corte Fornaledo, a local winery.

By July 10, the Vaughan delegation was ready to leave Milan and head back to Rome. The calendars show there were more meetings in Rome with trade representatives and a reception hosted by Air Canada.

The schedule also included a trip to visit the ambassador to the Vatican, with the last official meeting ending at midday on July 12.

The City of Vaughan said that meeting was scrapped at the last minute.

“The meeting with the Ambassador to the Vatican was cancelled by the Embassy the morning it was to take place,” a spokesperson wrote.

“It was intended to strengthen relationships that are important to Vaughan’s Italian heritage and Roman Catholic communities and to have discussions around interfaith dialogue.”

The City of Vaughan said the trip had been successful in strengthening ties between the Ontario municipality and various groups in Italy.

The results, a spokesperson said, would be seen over time.

“Foreign direct investment is a long-term process that involves ongoing engagement and relationship building,” they wrote.

“The City continues to support several investment leads resulting from its international economic development activities. In addition, international economic missions are undertaken to explore collaborative opportunities to encourage trade. The Delegation met with various economic development stakeholders who now champion Vaughan’s economy and the trade and investment opportunities in Italy.”

The city added that the 2024 trip meshed with federal policy priorities to diversify Canadian trade beyond the United States.

“Vaughan continues to work to help Canada achieve its current ten-year target to double its non-U.S. exports and generate an extra $300 billion in trade,” they wrote.

Both Jackson and Ferri responded to Global News’ questions through the City of Vaughan’s communications department, broadly reiterating the answers city staff sent.

“The City of Sora and the City of Vaughan share a partnership dating back to 1992. Vaughan is home to many from the Sora diaspora with strong ties remaining both economically and culturally between the two cities,” Jackson wrote.

“This mission was an opportunity to formally renew the partnership in a signing ceremony held on the first day and establish avenues for future collaboration.”