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Charlottetown cabinet retreat cost taxpayers almost half-a-million

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From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Author: Ryan Thorpe

“Spending more than four hundred grand on a three-day retreat to tackle affordability is tone-deaf and unacceptable”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s three-day cabinet retreat to Prince Edward Island last summer cost taxpayers at least $412,000, according to government records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Figures contained within online proactive disclosures, discovered by the National Postincreased the total cost of the cabinet retreat to $485,196.

Trudeau and his cabinet ministers gathered at a waterfront hotel in Charlottetown, P.E.I., from Aug. 21-23, 2023. The retreat was aimed at tackling the affordability and housing crises facing Canadians.

Expenses from the retreat include $100,000 worth of hotel rooms, $22,000 spent on food and drink, and a $52,000 “banquet.”

“Spending more than four hundred grand on a three-day retreat to tackle affordability is tone-deaf and unacceptable,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Canadians don’t need politicians wasting this type of money, we need them to stop raising taxes that make life more expensive.”

At the cabinet retreat, Trudeau claimed they were “rolling up our sleeves to talk about affordability, to talk about economic growth for everyone, to talk about how we’re going to solve some of the housing challenges.”

Ministers also heard a presentation from the head of the B.C. thinktank Generation Squeeze, a leading proponent of the federal government implementing a home-equity tax. A home-equity tax would tax the money Canadians receive when selling their home.

“It seems like the Trudeau government’s only solution on affordability is to waste other people’s money flying around the country talking to each other,” Terrazzano said. “It’s a shame they don’t have offices in Ottawa, or Zoom accounts, so they could do some of this work without spending thousands of dollars.”

The records obtained by the CTF were released in response to an order paper question from member of Parliament Tracy Gray (Kelowna-Lake Country).

“Expenditures related to the cabinet retreat are as Nov. 27, 2023,” according to the records. “Some travel claims may still be outstanding. As a result, expenditures related to the cabinet retreat may increase slightly.”

The Charlottetown retreat was held nearly a year after the Trudeau government organized an earlier cabinet retreat in Vancouver, which was billed as an anti-inflation summit.

The three-day Vancouver retreat cost taxpayers more than $275,000, and saw Trudeau and his ministers drop tens of thousands of dollars at a café serving up an $88 “millionaire’s cut” steak and lobster plate.

During a press conference on the final day of the Charlottetown retreat, Trudeau acknowledged Canadians are “really worried” about the state of the country and “looking to blame anyone they can for it.”

“So yeah, it’s not an easy time to be a politician,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau announced no new plans to address the affordability or housing crises during the retreat.

“So yeah, it’s not an easy time to be a taxpayer,” Terrazzano said.

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Largest fraud in US history? Independent Journalist visits numerous daycare centres with no children, revealing massive scam

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A young journalist has uncovered perhaps the largest fraud scheme in US history. 

He certainly isn’t a polished reporter with many years of experience, but 23 year old independent journalist Nick Shirley seems to be getting the job done. Shirley has released an incredible video which appears to outline fraud after fraud after fraud in what appears to be a massive taxpayer funded scheme involving up to $9 Billion Dollars.

In one day of traveling around Minneapolis-St. Paul, Shirley appears to uncover over $100 million in fraudulent operations.

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“Magnitude cannot be overstated”: Minnesota aid scam may reach $9 billion

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Federal prosecutors say Minnesota’s exploding social-services fraud scandal may now rival nearly the entire economy of Somalia, with as much as $9 billion allegedly stolen from taxpayer-funded programs in what authorities describe as industrial-scale abuse that unfolded largely under the watch of Democrat Gov. Tim Walz. The staggering new estimate is almost nine times higher than the roughly $1 billion figure previously suspected and amounts to about half of the $18 billion in federal funds routed through Minnesota-run social-services programs since 2018, according to prosecutors. “The magnitude cannot be overstated,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said Thursday, stressing that investigators are still uncovering massive schemes. “This is not a handful of bad actors. It’s staggering, industrial-scale fraud. Every day we look under a rock and find another $50 million fraud operation.”

Authorities say the alleged theft went far beyond routine overbilling. Dozens of defendants — the vast majority tied to Minnesota’s Somali community — are accused of creating sham businesses and nonprofits that claimed to provide housing assistance, food aid, or health-care services that never existed, then billing state programs backed by federal dollars. Thompson said the opportunity became so lucrative it attracted what he called “fraud tourism,” with out-of-state operators traveling to Minnesota to cash in. Charges announced Thursday against six more people bring the total number of defendants to 92.

Among the newly charged are Anthony Waddell Jefferson, 37, and Lester Brown, 53, who prosecutors say traveled from Philadelphia to Minnesota after spotting what they believed was easy money in the state’s housing assistance system. The pair allegedly embedded themselves in shelters and affordable-housing networks to pose as legitimate providers, then recruited relatives and associates to fabricate client notes. Prosecutors say they submitted about $3.5 million in false claims to the state’s Housing Stability Services Program for roughly 230 supposed clients.

Other cases show how deeply the alleged fraud penetrated Minnesota’s health-care programs. Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf, 27, is accused of setting up a bogus autism therapy nonprofit that paid parents to enroll children regardless of diagnosis, then billed the state for services never delivered, netting roughly $6 million. Another defendant, Asha Farhan Hassan, 28, allegedly participated in a separate autism scheme that generated $14 million in fraudulent reimbursements, while also pocketing nearly $500,000 through the notorious Feeding Our Future food-aid scandal. “Roughly two dozen Feeding Our Future defendants were getting money from autism clinics,” Thompson said. “That’s how we learned about the autism fraud.”

The broader scandal began to unravel in 2022 when Feeding Our Future collapsed under federal investigation, but prosecutors say only in recent months has the true scope of the alleged theft come into focus. Investigators allege large sums were wired overseas or spent on luxury vehicles and other high-end purchases. The revelations have fueled political fallout in Minnesota and prompted renewed federal scrutiny of immigration-linked fraud as well as criticism of state oversight failures. Walz, who is seeking re-election in 2026 after serving as Kamala Harris’ running mate in 2024, defended his administration Thursday, saying, “We will not tolerate fraud, and we will continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught.” Prosecutors, however, made clear the investigation is far from finished — and warned the final tally could climb even higher.

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