You Won't Believe What Canada's Embassy in Brazil Has Been Up To
Global Affairs Canada
Canada’s embassy in Brazil has been having a terrific year. Well, at least that’s how it might look from the perspective of the 15 or so Canadians who live and work there.
Oh sure, they just faced a conviction in a local court over labour law infractions. And, OK, there are also multiple related cases pending. But the vibe down there must be great.
After all, it never snows in Brasilia and, not counting a half million Canadian dollars for security and “common services”, they spent $1.1 million keeping their various properties running according to a 2024-2025 budget document I’ve seen. Here, courtesy of Google Satellite, is what the embassy itself looks like:
And here’s how that $1.1 million in spending broke down:
To be sure, this isn’t a story about vast crooked fortunes being gained through devious financial scams. I’m aware of no 300ft luxury yachts being quietly moved between Dows Lake and the Bahamas each fall and spring. And it’s certainly reasonable for Canadians on foreign missions to expect to enjoy an above-average lifestyle while serving their country abroad.
But perhaps some of the spending here is getting a bit too close to the line. Take the ten pool covers purchased last year for nearly $25,000 (Canadian) in total. The budget document actually notes how such covers can help with the high cost of replacing water lost through evaporation.
In fact, water costs (totaling $103,000 that year) have been rising: they’re 20 percent higher than fiscal year 2022-2023. So it does seem that someone on staff is aware of the problem and is trying to address it. But a simpler solution might involve just shutting down at least some of the pools (there’s no way they need 10 covers for just one pool) or switching to using trucked-in water for the pools (which is supposed to be cheaper).
And how about the $16,900 spent on a Rational iCombi Pro Xs 6 2/3 220V Mono Elétrico oven for the official residence? Nice. But that’s around ten times the cost of a standard high-end home oven. Add to that the $2,140 spent on a KitchenAid 6.6L, Espresso Machine, Pasta Maker, Blender, and Electrical Slicer.
Don’t you just hate it when everything breaks down at the same time?
I realize that, in the grand scheme of things, nothing here feels all that evil. And I know it’s not fair to peer over people’s shoulders and judge their actions from such a distance. But it certainly does look like here’s yet one more Global Affairs Canada operation that’s missed the memo on the need to tone down public spending.
We’ve discussed Global Affairs Canada before in these parts. You might “enjoy” visiting some of those:
What Happens When Ministries Go Rogue?
This is an older (and longer) version of an article just published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
Is Global Affairs Canada Wasting Your Tax Dollars Abroad?
It seems like forever since I last wrote about program spending at Global Affairs Canada (GAC). I’m not aware of any big-picture changes to department policy in the meantime, but their Project Browser tool is still there - and it’s still a welcome resource for transparency.
Global Affairs Canada Foreign Aid: An Update
Back in early November I reached out to Global Affairs Canada (GAC) for a response to questions I later posed in my What Happens When Ministries Go Rogue post. You might recall how GAC has contributed billions of dollars to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, only to badly miss their stated program objectives. Here, for the record, …
I suspect there's no real malfeasance here, just the natural proclivity to live large when someone else pays the tab. The big difference is that for normal humans, that proclivity is regulated by concepts like accountability and consequence.
I signed up to this Substack as it seemed to promise some deep dives into fiscal and financial matters and does deliver that enough to make it worthwhile. However I am sorry to say that this piece is really just another example of ill-informed or ill-willed ‘gotcha’ journalism, where the headline is the story. I won’t talk about the pool covers as the piece actually answers the question of why these might have been reasonably purchased. As for the oven, the embedded link shows that this is a professional item intended for a professional kitchen, that an ambassador’s official residence requires for events, and could not in any way be a replaced with a regular home oven. I suppose we could operate our diplomatic missions overseas on a byob and potluck basis, with the ambassador working the microwave throughout an event- was that your point?