BURST
A Canadian consulate in Milan that was shuttered by the Stephen Harper government almost 20 years ago as a cost-saving measure, only to be resurrected under Justin Trudeau more than a decade later, is under scrutiny for how much Global Affairs Canada spent to reestablish a presence in the northern Italian city.
The federal government spent almost $5.5 million on the new consulate, which opened in 2023, including hundreds of thousands on furnishings and Canadian artwork.
The figure was provided by Global Affairs Canada in response to parliamentary order questions posted by Ontario Conservative MP Vincent Ho earlier this year, and served as the basis for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s (CTF) latest grievance with government spending.
Of particular concern to CTF was the close to $400,000 it spent furnishing and decorating the new space in a glass-covered building at 11 Verziere Road in the centre of Milan.
The order paper responses indicate Global Affairs spent $59,000 on artwork, shipping and the means to display it. And while individual prices for each of the seven pieces — created exclusively by Indigenous artisans — were not provided, the average spent was $4,800.
Global Affairs spent $33,000 on seven pieces of "artwork" for its consulate in Milan, Italy.
— Franco Terrazzano (@franco_nomics) April 23, 2026
Then they dropped $6,400 on a photographer.
Here are four of the seven pieces you paid for, including "Upcycled" pink cowboy boots and a mitten on a stick. pic.twitter.com/MUdkxq0eRL
Among the works was “Erased,” a pair of pink cowboy boots artist Barry Ace found in a New York City thrift shop and “up-cycled” with floral beadwork and “wire trail duster fringe that erases the wearer’s footprints.” Global Affairs paid $18,000 for the boots, but Ace and Heffel Galleries donated the proceeds to a charity benefiting people living with AIDS and HIV.
“For Ace, this work addresses his personal relationship to queer history of his generation in the 1980s and 1990s, and the erasure and negative impact that the pandemic had and continues to have on the queer community,” reads an article about the 2023 sale on his website.
The mixed media is on display with three textile pieces created by Marcy Friesen — two are what appear to be traditional Indigenous headpieces made from dyed rabbit fur and sherpa, while another, titled “ Blueberry Patch ,” is a single orange mitten made of fur, cow hide and decorated with a beadwork floral pattern on the palm.
Friesen also provided a photo titled “Oh The Children,” in which a model with a bedazzled face wrapped in furs wears a fox pelt atop their head. It was listed for $2,000 on Friesen’s site . The other pieces are sculptures created by Jamasee Pitseolak and Kellipalik Etidloie.
Global Affairs then had to invest over $21,000 for frames and mounts, including single poles to support Friesen’s, plus another $3,600 on shipping and installation.
“If you asked the average Canadian if their hard-earned cash should go to pink cowboy boots and a mitten on a stick in Milan or stay in their own pockets so they can buy boots and mitts for their kids, the answer is pretty obvious,” CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano stated in a news release.
“The government is spending more money snapping photos in Milan than most people spend for their wedding photos.”
The total cost of furniture, carpet and signage, including shipping and installation, came in at $322,505.
In its response to Ho’s queries about the expenses, Global Affairs said its art collection in Milan “celebrates Canada with artistic styles and narrative ideas that highlight Canadian cultural and artistic diversity.”
“Our Canadian artists are among the most talented in the world, and Global Affairs Canada is proud to be supporting them.”
National Post has contacted Global Affairs for comment.
Equally vexing to Terrazzano and the CTF is that Global Affairs Canada maintains a fully-staffed embassy in Rome, the Italian capital and heart of government, which offers all the same services as Milan — citizenship and immigration, death and marriage, passports and more.
“Why is the government even spending this much money re-opening a consulate in Milan when we already pay for an embassy in Rome,” asked Terrazzano.
“Someone in government must explain what value taxpayers are supposedly getting for the millions of dollars Global Affairs spends on lavish properties around the world.”
While the recent Winter Olympics taught many that Italy, while not large geographically, can be a challenging country to traverse. Still, the trip from Milan to Rome is just one hour by plane, three hours via high-speed rail and seven hours by road.
The Rome embassy also provides services for Canadians in nearby Albania, the microstate of San Marino in Italy and the island nation of Malta, south of Sicily.
Canada maintained both facilities until 2007 when then-foreign affairs minister Peter McKay announced the closure of the consulate, along with the ones in St. Petersburg, Russia and Osaka and Fukuoka, Japan, as part of a “spending restraint exercise.”
The move was criticized as “unfathomable” by Peter Donolo, Canada’s consul-general in Milan from 1999 to 2001, who said in a 2007 Globe and Mail op-ed that the office was so effective that officials had begun to centralize “all of Canada’s commercial operations in Italy (including those at the Canadian Embassy in Rome, in Milan, which is, after all, Italy’s business capital.”
“It would be the equivalent of the Italian government closing its consulates in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary or Vancouver, and decreeing that henceforth all commercial initiatives would be carried out from the embassy in Ottawa,” he wrote.
The Harper government reestablished a presence in the northern city in 2013 by launching an “honorary consulate” with local lawyer Ezio Maria Simonelli appointed honorary consul. Unlike its predecessor, the new consulate had a smaller footprint, limited hours and was more of a trade office than a diplomatic mission.
The Liberals announced it would reestablish a full consulate at a new location in 2019 to “help businesses take greater advantage of the economic opportunities in this dynamic region.”
When it opened in October 2023 , Global Affrais Canada said it would bolster Canada’s “Trade Commissioner Service footprint in Italy’s primary industrial and technology region.”
Global Affairs, in response to order paper questions , said that despite reports suggesting the project was budgeted at over $18 million, the final approved budget was less than half that amount and the final cost came in at $5,461,477, roughly $2 million less than expected. Most of it, some $3.3 million, was paid to an Italian firm completing the “modified design-build” that included “energy and water conservation measures.”
“The total costs of operations and maintenance for the Milan consulate since its reopening in 2023 to date is $1,847,863,” Global Affairs wrote. “This largely includes rent and other miscellaneous maintenance costs.”
The agency also explained that it was Enzo Moavero Milanesi, Italy’s foreign affairs minister in 2019, who “ceased support for Global Affairs Canada’s Honorary Consul arrangement and requested Canada open a diplomat-led office in Milan compliant with their interpretation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic and Consular Relations.”
National Post is awaiting a comment from Global Affairs.
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