The feds spent over $450,000 per person on quarantine lodging at one hotel

The Canadian government spent nearly half a million dollars per person on quarantine hotel lodging in Calgary, newly released documents say.

Conservative Member of Parliament Michelle Rempel Garner from Nose Hill, Calgary, submitted an inquiry into the funding in November last year.

Answers came in on January 30, 2023, and Garner wrote about the revelations on Substack. “The response that I just received a few hours ago was legitimately flabbergasting,” she said.

Move over $6000 a night in London.

I just found out the Liberals just spent $450,000 per person on hotel stays in Calgary.https://t.co/SGa1JtXbg5

— Michelle Rempel Garner (@MichelleRempel) January 30, 2023

One particular hotel, The Westin Calgary Airport, served as a quarantine facility and was authorized by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to receive travellers entering Canada via air between February 21 and August 9 of 2021.

The measure was put in place to make sure travellers had a place to stay for three nights while they waited for their Day 1 result. On October 30 last year, this designation was cancelled.

An account of the federal government’s spending on the lodging and meals of the travellers is raising concern. The following chart shows the number of travellers who stayed at the hotel between June 22, 2020, and October 1, 2022:

The House of Commons

These numbers are shocking when you read how much the government paid The Westin Calgary Airport to take care of the travellers.

In the fiscal year 2020, the feds spent $8,920,071.72 on 119 travellers’ lodging and meals at the hotel. Then, in 2021, spending went up to $11,134,287.56, accommodating 1,356 travellers.

But in 2022, $6,790,717.46 was spent on just 15 travellers, bringing the amount of money spent on each guest to a whopping $452,714.50.

The 54 million on ArriveCAN definitely makes me feel richer 🙄, the 6000/night hotels, the 6 mill to quarantine 15 people in AB, money you gave to corporations run by friends and family, the list goes on and not one dime benefited a Canadian taxpayer in any way shape or form

— Cara (@BurtonCL80) January 31, 2023

“Why was this contract maintained after travel restrictions had been lifted?” Garner asks in her Substack article. “How did no one catch that this was happening? And this is just one quarantine hotel facility. How many more stories like this are there across the country?”

Garner, along with other commentators on social media, pointed out that the amount spent per person would have been enough to buy each guest a condo in the city. “Many folks in my community would have loved to have won that lottery,” she added.