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A 10-day trade mission to Italy in the summer of 2024 cost the City of Vaughan tens of thousands of dollars, with newly released documents revealing that officials spent more than $1,700 on Uber rides alone — including a $31.79 fare for a 900-metre trip that Google Maps suggests would take five minutes to walk.
Global News obtained the records following a lengthy freedom of information process with the Toronto-area municipality. The documents include hundreds of pages of receipts, credit card statements, emails and itineraries that paint a detailed picture of the trip’s costs and activities.
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Who Went and What It Cost
Six people traveled to Italy on behalf of Vaughan. Deputy Mayor Linda Jackson and Councillor Mario Ferri were the two elected officials on the mission. They were accompanied by Jackson’s executive assistant and three staff members from the city’s economic development department.
The group departed Toronto Pearson International Airport on July 3, 2024. They visited Sora in the Lazio region, then traveled to Milan before finishing the trip in Rome, returning home 10 days later. The city set the total budget for the mission at $120,000, which included $30,000 in federal funding. Some costs were also charged to individual councillors’ expense accounts.
Beyond the Uber charges, the delegation expensed thousands of dollars in airfare, paid $4,247.46 to charter a bus for several days, and traveled between cities by train. The city defended all expenditures, stating that ground transportation was arranged to ensure delegates could reach engagements on time and that no policy prohibited that type of use.
Uber Rides Draw Scrutiny
The Vaughan delegation’s Vaughan Italy trade mission Uber spending drew particular attention from fiscal watchdogs. Receipts show the group booked multiple short-distance rides throughout Milan and Rome, including a $54.84 Uber covering 1.8 kilometres and a $77.34 ride spanning 2.2 kilometres near the Tiber River.
One receipt showed a €21 charge for the 900-metre ride near Rome’s main train station on July 10. The trip lasted four minutes. A $22 penalty for cancelling a ride also appeared in the records.
Longer rides cost considerably more. A 30-kilometre airport transfer on July 13 ran just over $185, while a 19-kilometre Uber in Milan cost $139.61. Another ride logged as “dinner to hotel” came to $112.69.
Noah Jarvis, Ontario director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, was blunt in his assessment. “It was about 32 bucks for a 900-metre Uber ride,” he said. “Clearly these councillors weren’t really trying very hard when it came to being frugal with how they’re billing taxpayers.” Jarvis also questioned the need for in-person travel at all. “I don’t know why they couldn’t just have a Zoom call,” he said. “Zoom is pretty popular — we’ve been using it for six years since 2020.”
Sightseeing, Winery Tours and Cancelled Plans
The itineraries released through the freedom of information request show that the mission included more than business meetings. The delegation’s first stop after landing in Rome was Sora, a historic town in Lazio that has maintained a friendship agreement with Vaughan since 1992.
The schedule for their time in Sora included a working dinner, a day of meetings, and a tour of the town’s museum, library, churches and a cathedral. The itinerary also listed a workshop on Ciammella — a traditional ring-shaped Italian cake — followed by lunch and “traditional pasta tastings.” The day was set to conclude with an aperitif by a local lake and a period of “unstructured time.”
A city spokesperson confirmed that the pasta tasting and cake workshop did not take place. “This proposed agenda item by Sora officials did not take place,” they wrote, pointing to a public report on the trip. That report offered limited detail on how the delegation spent its time, noting that the group met with Sora’s mayor and council and renewed the friendship agreement.
In Milan, the delegation toured Corte Fornaledo, a local winery, and met with restaurant group Eataly — which already operates multiple Toronto locations — to pitch the idea of opening a Vaughan store. A planned meeting with the ambassador to the Vatican in Rome was cancelled by the embassy on the morning it was scheduled to occur. The city said the meeting was intended to strengthen ties with Vaughan’s Italian heritage and Roman Catholic communities.
City and Councillors Defend the Mission
The City of Vaughan maintained that the trip delivered meaningful results, even if those results would take time to materialize. “Foreign direct investment is a long-term process that involves ongoing engagement and relationship building,” a spokesperson wrote.
The city also framed the mission within the broader context of Canadian trade diversification. “Vaughan continues to work to help Canada achieve its current ten-year target to double its non-U.S. exports and generate an extra $300 billion in trade,” officials stated.
Both Jackson and Ferri responded to Global News through the city’s communications department. Jackson emphasized the historical ties between the two cities. “The City of Sora and the City of Vaughan share a partnership dating back to 1992,” she wrote. “Vaughan is home to many from the Sora diaspora with strong ties remaining both economically and culturally between the two cities. This mission was an opportunity to formally renew the partnership and establish avenues for future collaboration.”
The city said the mission generated engagement with several companies and trade organizations, strengthened relationships with national government representatives, and created new opportunities in trade, investment and talent development.
