While promising to rein in waste and refocus government spending, cabinet quietly spent $18.6 million refitting a consulate in Milan as a climate change showcase, according to Access To Information records.Blacklock's Reporter says documents released Friday show the department budgeted $18,619,067 to lease and renovate office space for a reopened Canadian consulate in Milan. The spending was approved even as ministers publicly claimed they were cutting unnecessary expenditures.The previous Conservative government had closed the Milan office in 2007, assigning emergency consular services to a local lawyer at minimal cost.Records indicate cabinet decided in 2020 to reopen the consulate and spent three years transforming the space into what officials described as an energy-efficient showpiece. At the time, the Embassy of Canada to Italy said the project demonstrated Canada’s leadership in fighting climate change.“This commitment to environmental sustainability is emblematic of Canada’s efforts to combat climate change and its role as a world leader in the development of clean technologies,” the embassy stated.Italian contractors handled the design and upgrades. Five employees were assigned to the office. Invoices obtained through Access To Information show $37,295 spent on art displays and $6,400 on a photographer..The consulate officially opened in 2023, the same fiscal year the government pledged to trim billions in spending and “refocus government spending to deliver for Canadians,” then-finance minister Chrystia Freeland said at the time. Among the proposed savings was a 15% reduction in travel costs — a target that did not materialize.“The fiscal forecast in the budget that we tabled in the spring includes that $15 billion of savings so we could fund the programs outlined in the budget,” Freeland told reporters when questioned about restraint.“How do you convince Canadians that you are serious about this?” one reporter asked.“We are Liberals,” Freeland replied.Spending on the Milan refit was never publicly announced. The decision followed a 2018 internal review titled Audit Of Real Property: Life Cycle Management that examined the foreign affairs department’s $3 billion property portfolio..The audit found mismanagement was common, stating real property information was not always accurate or fully used to guide spending decisions. It concluded the department lacked a proactive and strategic approach to managing its holdings.Cost concerns over diplomatic real estate are not new. In 2012, then-finance minister Jim Flaherty ordered the sale of luxury foreign properties as part of a cost-cutting drive. At the time, records showed the department was spending $208 million annually on overseas property maintenance.The portfolio then included 2,296 properties, among them 107 official residences. The largest sale under Flaherty’s directive was the Canadian High Commission in London, which sold in 2013 for $530 million.
