A recent Access to Information request conducted by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has revealed that Global Affairs Canada has spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the last decade on various properties around the world.
Federal Director Franco Terrazzano says their access request was inspired by news over the summer that Global Affairs Canada had purchased a $9 million condo in New York City, without Treasury Board approval.
Terrazzano says that begs the question: what else has Global Affairs purchased? He says what they found surprised them.
It turns out that Global Affairs Canada owns more than 400 properties in over 70 countries, and that they spent $186 million on property around the world in the last decade.
That includes $12.5 million worth of vacant land in Senegal, a $10.2 million chancery in Ukraine and $41 million on three properties in Kabul, Afghanistan that Terrazzano says were eventually abandoned to the Taliban.
Terrazzano calls Global Affairs Canada’s real estate portfolio on the taxpayers’ tab “bloated” and if Canadians aren’t getting real value out of the holdings, then it’s time to sell off the properties.
