BURST
Canadian senators are costing taxpayers extensive amounts for overseas trips even though Members of Parliament are regularly representing Canada on the same trips, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
A national overview of province-by-province senator overseas travel, released by the CTF this week, states that international trips undertaken between Jan. 16, 2023 and March 17, 2026 by 65 senators cost Canadian taxpayers $1,850,420. Overall, says the CTF, senators have nearly doubled their international travel spending in the last two years, with the costs climbing 88 per cent from $391,095 in 2023 to $736,165 in 2025, according to its analysis of parliamentary financial disclosures.
The CTF takes the position that senators are unelected and as such should not be travelling anywhere outside of the country on the taxpayers’ tab. “Nobody votes for senators so these people represent exactly nobody,” said Kris Sims, spokesperson for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in an email to National Post.
Ontario Senator Salma Ataullahjan‘s international travel topped the CTF list, totalling $131,706 between January 2023 and March 2026 for 14 overseas trips. The CTF says Ataullahjan travelled to Mozambique, Botswana, Switzerland twice, Uzbekistan, the United States, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Angola, Costa Rica, Ghana, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Bahrain, Senegal and Cabo Verde.
Second in Canada was Newfoundland and Labrador Senator David Wells, whose travel for 17 international trips between 2023 and 2026 totalled $120,389.
Senator Salma Ataullahjan speak to refugees in St-Laurent, Quebec on May 31, 2016.
Otherwise, looking at the CTF’s top Senate travellers on a per province basis across the rest of the country, Nova Scotia Senator Michael MacDonald took 17 trips abroad costing $85,000. B.C. Senator Margo Greenwood went onon 11 trips abroad costing more than $80,000, then P.E.I. Senator Percy Downe ($67,000), New Brunswick Senator René Cormier ($64,000), Manitoba Senator Gigi Osler ($61,000), former Saskatchewan Senator Brent Cotter ($19,000) and on the lower end, Alberta Senator Scott Tannas ($10,795). (Terrazzo told National Post in an email that the organization is holding off on a report about Quebec senators until after that province’s election on Monday.)
Ataullahjan’s office responded to National Post with an emailed statement on Thursday, noting that the CTF’s “characterization of these expenses as having been incurred or billed by the Senator (is) not accurate. These are costs incurred by Parliament and administered by parliamentary personnel in the execution of parliamentary association responsibilities.”
The statement said that the parliamentarians, which includes both MPs and senators, “selected to participate in these activities do not control or authorize these expenses.”
Further, the statement noted that “Senate expense rules do not permit Senators to undertake international travel in their capacity as Senators. Senators travel internationally when selected to do so in their capacity as members of a parliamentary association or, on rare occasions, a committee.”
Sims said the “ senators are absolutely spending taxpayers’ money on international trips, regardless of what label is being put on their travelling entourage. If senators are upset by being held accountable for this expenditure of taxpayers’ money, they can refuse to go on any international trips. ”
The CTF analysis points out that taxpayers paid $173,041 for seven trips by senators to be “observers” to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), where Canada is not a member. Therefore, senators travelled to meetings as observers, where they could only speak with permission. Sometimes, says the CTF, the senators simply submitted written speeches instead of participating in the proceedings. Further, PACE sessions are live-streamed and viewable from anywhere in the w orld. Meanwhile, Canadian MPs were also at these sessions representing Canada.
Some senators incurred costs for international trips to attend meetings that were also held by videoconference, according to the CTF. For example, it says Manitoba Senator Gigi Osler went to New York in 2023 and 2024 to attend parliamentary meetings. During the 2023 trip, Osler discussed the benefits of hybrid parliamentary sittings. The same parliamentary group regularly holds meetings and workshops by videoconference. Osler went in person both times, costing taxpayers $4,677.
Nova Scotia Senator Michael MacDonald cost taxpayers $2,869 to attend the Canadian Embassy’s Trump inauguration event, even though Parliament sent three MPs. The delegation watched the proceedings from the Canadian embassy on a live-stream, says the CTF.
Former Saskatchewan senator Brent Cotter cost taxpayers $7,694 for a six-day European trip, though Parliament also sent three elected MPs. Cotter and the delegation arrived in Tallinn, Estonia, on a Sunday when no officials “were available” to meet with them, notes the CTF. So they visited “important landmarks in the city.”
Senators René Cormier, Percy Downe and Michael MacDonald went on a $76,236 trip to Argentina and Uruguay, along with elected MP. Parliament did not release a report on the trip, says the CTF. However, it says Argentinian records identify MP Richard Cannings as speaking on behalf of the Canadian delegation during a meeting with Argentine lawmakers. No remarks were attributed to any of the senators, according to CTF.
Senator Michael MacDonald cost taxpayers $5,023 for accommodation during a four-day conference in Jackson, Wyoming.
Ataullahjan cost taxpayers $12,887 for a trip to Cabo Verde and Senegal. Four other senators, René Cormier, Amina Gerba, Manuelle Oudar and Rebecca Patterson, went on the same trip. The whole delegation cost $95,795. Canada only exports about $2.4 million worth of goods annually to Cabo Verde, says the CTF.
Claudine Courtois, director of Parliamentary Affairs for Senator Wells, says that parliamentary diplomacy is an increasingly important dimension of Canada’s international relations. Regarding Wells’ European travel, Courtois points out that he is the elected vice president of the Canada-Europe Interparliamentary Association, and “regularly represents Canada in a number of international fora, including the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe … and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and he regularly speaks on issues important to Canada.”
With regard to speaking and submitting speeches to PACE she adds that “delegates register to speak and there is a finite time allotted for the rapporteurs, respondents and delegates on each of the given topics. If the time for the full debate expires before all speakers have an opportunity to speak, their speeches are registered and are submitted for the record. Speeches will not be registered unless the delegate is in the chamber, so it’s inadmissible if the delegate doesn’t attend.”
Courtois also says that Wells “recognizes the responsibility that comes with the expenditure of public funds and takes that responsibility seriously.”
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