By comparability, the federal authorities spent $11.1 million in 2021-22 to accommodate 1,356 vacationers, in response to paperwork ordered by Calgary Nostril Hill MP Michele Rempel Garner
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Canada spent greater than $6 million on a quarantine resort in Calgary in 2022 that housed 15 individuals, new federal paperwork present.
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In response to an order doc from Michelle Rempel Garner, MP for Calgary Nostril Hill, the Public Well being Authority of Canada has spent $6,790,717 for lodging and meals within the 2022-23 fiscal yr. The response to the order doc additional said {that a} whole of 15 individuals have been lodged on the facility all year long, with the most recent keep happening in September 2022.
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By comparability, the federal authorities spent $11.1 million in 2021-22 to accommodate 1,356 vacationers and $8.9 million in 2020-21 on lodging and meals for 119 individuals. The ordering doc says that as a result of approach the info was collected, the quantity of people that stayed on the resort could also be underreported.
Many quarantine restrictions have been dropped by November 2021
Rempel Garner mentioned she was shocked however not stunned by the 2022 figures, calling the prices “unwarranted spending”.
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“Particularly with the 2022 figures, that is after the federal authorities’s panel beneficial stopping this program. That is after the remainder of the world eased restrictions and certainly it was even after the Canadian authorities eased restrictions,” mentioned Rempel Garner.
Worldwide vacationers have been required to self-isolate upon returning to Canada for a lot of the pandemic. The Westin was first designated as a authorities quarantine resort as of June 2020 and starting in 2021, vacationers had been required to endure a COVID-19 check upon arrival and keep at a resort for a minimum of three days till their check was damaging . These measures had been eased in November 2021 to permit totally vaccinated people to enter Canada with out going into quarantine, supplied they check damaging earlier than boarding their flight.
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Worldwide journey restrictions had been totally lifted firstly of October 2022 for everybody, together with unvaccinated people. The federal government additionally suspended the ArriveCan app on the time, one other goal of criticism for overspending after it was revealed the federal authorities spent greater than $8 million to create and replace the app.
Figures characterize $450,000 per individual: Rempel Garner
The ordering doc doesn’t make clear who the 15 individuals had been who had been remoted on the Westin in 2022, but it surely does present that 14 of these stays occurred earlier than July, whereas one individual was quarantined in September. Its designation as a quarantine resort was canceled final November.
The Acclaim Calgary Airport participated as a government-authorized lodging, however didn’t have contracts with PHAC, as these staying on the resort paid out of pocket.
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The federal authorities paid a further $4.4 million to the Westin in related prices through the pandemic.
Rempel Garner mentioned it appeared the federal government had not been on the hook for its spending related to this system and mentioned it was the opposition’s responsibility to research unjustified spending, noting the 2022 figures characterize about $450,000 per individual.
“It appears to me that that they had the flexibility to cancel this contract. They selected to not … they forgot to take a look at, if you’ll,” Rempel Garner mentioned.
She mentioned she plans to additional query the federal government in query within the Home of Commons.
The federal authorities didn’t return requests for remark Tuesday morning.
dshort@postmedia.com
