Parliament spent nearly $600,000 on luxury hotel rooms it didn’t use when nearly half of the listed delegates for a conference of European parliamentarians it hosted either didn’t show up or chose less expensive hotels.
Parliament expected 700 delegates to attend the annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly, which took place in Vancouver from June 30 to July 4. The conference is usually held in Europe, where most of its members are based.
Only 365 delegates ended up attending, and not all of them stayed at the hotels the government selected. That left taxpayers on the hook