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Ontario Premier Doug Ford billed taxpayers for a flight to Orlando, Fla., last summer to attend the conference of a private-sector union that has repeatedly endorsed the Progressive Conservative Party and received millions in government funding.
The province’s travel, meal and hospitality expense disclosure list shows four individuals — Ford, along with Labour Minister David Piccini and two staffers — expensed commercial flights and hotels totalling $11,709.85 for the trip in mid-July 2025.
While Ford and Piccini listed the reason as “travelled to attend ministry-related international mission,” social media videos show the pair of politicians at the LiUNA International Leadership Conference, held between July 14 and 16 at the Walt Disney Beach Club Resort Orlando.
Ford, who was welcomed onto the main stage to chants and applause from the assembled delegates, gave a keynote address and extolled the relationship between the union and PC government, calling LiUNA a “like-minded private sector union” whose cross-border membership underscores how the U.S. and Canada can work together.
The revelation comes as Ford insists that he’s stayed true to his political penny-pinching ways.
“Maybe what you should do is look into my expenses and find out that I have zero expenses,” he told reporters last week. “The only premier in the history of this province.”
Ford’s disclosures show $1,464.10 in airfare and $1,498.09 for accommodation were billed to taxpayers, allowing the premier to travel to and stay in “Orlando, FL, United States” between July 14 and 16, 2025.
The premier’s executive assistant also travelled with him to Florida, charging $2,962.19 for the three-day round trip.
Piccini billed $2,662.18 for the flight and hotels while a Ministry of Labour staffer booked another $3,123.29 in travel and accommodation costs.
Beyond confirming that they attended the event, neither Premier Ford nor Minister Piccini answered specific questions including why it was labelled as an “international mission,” whether both politicians stayed on the resort and why it was considered a legitimate government expense.
“As was publicized, Premier Ford was invited, and travelled, to the LiUNA conference, the largest private sector union in Canada who represent over 130,000 workers in Ontario alone,” the Premier’s Office said in a statement.
The government’s critics say while the premier might have a legitimate reason for speaking at a conference, this trip is unlikely to sit well with taxpayers.
“In the court of public opinion … that doesn’t look very good,” said Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser.
“You’re going to a Disney resort, to a conference with people who you already have a very well-established relationship … It’s not actually a good use of taxpayers’ money.”
While the premier was routinely flying across the province in an OPP-owned plane or on chartered aircraft during much of 2025, this time Ford and Piccini opted for commercial airfare to attend the LiUNA conference.
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Victoria Mancinelli, a representative of LiUNA’s Canadian arm, posted a picture of Ford in the terminal at Toronto Pearson International Airport on social media and defended his travel choices.
“The premier flew commercial and was greeted by families throughout Pearson excited to meet him. Not on a private jet,” Mancinelli said.
In an email to Global News, Mancinelli said the invitation came from “LiUNA’s International Headquarters in Washington, D.C., at the recommendation of LiUNA International Vice President and Canadian Director Joseph Mancinelli.”
“Given the Premier’s longstanding partnership with Ontario’s skilled trades and his government’s historic investments in infrastructure, workforce development and apprenticeship training, LiUNA’s international leadership believed it was important that he address delegates from across Canada and the United States whose jobs, industries and futures are directly shaped by public policy,” Mancinelli said.
Instagram and Facebook videos of the LiUNA event, some of which tagged the Disney beach club resort as the location, show Ford being cheered on as he took the stage to address the union and underscore the relationship.
Global News has extensively documented the history between LiUNA and the Progressive Conservative Party, from endorsements to government decisions and promises of work to come.
In 2022, months after endorsing the PC party in the general byelection, a small sliver of land owned by the executive assistant to LiUNA’s International vice-president Joe Mancinelli was removed from the Greenbelt as part of a major land swap.
In the spring of 2025, months after campaigning with Ford during the snap provincial election, Labour Minister Piccini promised LiUNA workers would build the premier’s 401 tunnel.
Later that summer, Ford deepened the party’s ties by flying to the Orlando LiUNA conference to offer a rallying cry as the country faced a trade war with the United States.
“United we stand, divided we fall,” Ford told the conference. “There’s no better example of our incredible potential as Americans and Canadians than the women and men of LiUNA.”
Months later, as the Ford government faced a scandal over the labour minister’s handling of the $2.5 billion skills development fund, Joe Mancinelli raced to the government’s defence, calling allegations of wrongdoing “absolute nonsense.”
“It’s pretty ludicrous some of the things that I’ve heard and the attacks, the unfounded attacks that have been focused and thrown at Minister Piccini and the premier,” Mancinelli told the Empire Club on Dec. 4.
“Words like corruption are words that should never be spoken in the legislature. And quite frankly, those who are speaking those are the corrupt people that are ruining this province.”
It’s unclear why Ford, in his official capacity as premier rather than PC Party leader, chose to attend the conference in person, nor has the government clarified why the trip was categorized as an “international mission.”
Just one of the government attendees offered a full purpose for the trip.
Piccini’s director of stakeholder relations said the reason for the expense was to “provide support to the Minister and the Premier at the Labourers’ International Union of North America International Leadership Summit.”
His office suggested, however, the Florida trip was a response to the trade war with the United States.
“In the face of President Trump’s tariffs and tariff threats, it has never been more important for elected leaders to engage with labour and employer partners as we embark on our $222 million plan to build the infrastructure Ontario needs for generations to come,” Piccini’s office said in a statement.
However, Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser questioned the need for the travel and suggested the trip reflects a larger change in the government’s attitude after the 2025 election.
“‘I deserve to go on a victory lap in Florida. I deserve a luxury private jet,’” Fraser said of the government’s motives. “There’s no ostensibly policy or economic reason to go to Florida that’s going to help Ontarians.”
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