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City councillors criticized for junket to Vancouver

There are a lot of folks — at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Vancouver — slamming Toronto Mayor Rob Ford for being a no-show, yet again.

Meanwhile, the Fords' — and at least one taxpayer watchdog — are slamming the 18, out of 44, city councillors from Toronto who did attend the annual event which ends on Monday.

"While some on council are trying to stop the gravy train, other councillors have found a new mode of transportation: The Gravy Plane", the Toronto Taxpayers' Federation Matthew McGuire, said in a press release referring to the cost of plane tickets and hotel accommodation for 18 councillors.

"I believe council needs to set a policy to limit the size of delegations to an affordable number. No private sector organization would send 40 per cent of its people on a junket like this.

"What will 18 councillors learn that a delegation of four or five couldn't share with colleagues upon their return from Vancouver?"

It's a fair question.

Certainly, the FCM conference serves some purpose. There was a trade show, where mayors and councillors were presented with the latest technologies in everything from street lighting to public toilets. The FCM's conference program included a plethora of 'best practice' workshops and study tours. And, on Sunday, the almost 2,000 delegates elected their representatives for the FCM national and regional boards.

But couldn't webcasts and on-line forums serve the same function?

[ Related: Toronto mayor lashes out at critics, avoids mention of alleged crack video ]

Former Liberal MP, and mayor of a Vancouver suburb, Lou Sekora thinks that 18 councillors are way too many.

"When I was the mayor, it was very simple two council members and the mayor went. That's it," Sekora, who served as Coquitlam's mayor from 1983 to 1997, told Yahoo! Canada News.

"Frankly, it's a rip off for the taxpayers. No question about it."

And it's not only Toronto councillors that are on the, so-called "gravy plane." Other cities and municipalities are even worse in terms of the percentage of elected officials they've sent to west coast.

Taxpayers are forced to foot the bill for airfare, accommodation and food — for at least four days — for eight out of 15 Calgary aldermen, six out of nine Prince Albert city councillors and eight out of 13 elected officials from Kingston Ontario.

According to the Calgary Herald, the total cost fore Calgary councillor is $2,700 for a total bill to taxpayers of over $21,000.

Cowtown alderman Jim Stevenson doesn't think there's anything wrong with that.

"It’s important for us to be there to speak on behalf of big cities," he told Sun News.

"We are totally outnumbered by smaller municipalities and rural municipalities.

"It’s very important for us to learn from others — there’s always different advances in technology and equipment."

[ Related: Olivia Chow still weighing her options about a Toronto mayoralty run ]

Yahoo! Canada News contacted six out of the 18 Toronto city councillors who attended the conference to ask them to respond to the criticism — as of press time, none of them had responded.

What do you think? In an era of fiscal responsibility, should so many councillors attend such a conference at taxpayers' expense?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

(Photo courtesy of the Canadian Press)

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