In the spring of 2023, a councillor and city staffer set off on a brief trip from Ontario to the United Arab Emirates to try to attract a company, already partnered with a local university, to invest further in their city.
Coun. Gurpartap Toor of Brampton, Ont., along with city and Algoma University staff, went to Dubai in April last year to attend a “developer day” for a major tech company, Unity, and meet with its executives.
The meeting went so well, according to Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown’s office, that he amended a trip he was taking to Pakistan to “make one final pitch” to the company in Abu Dhabi at his own expense.
More than a year after those meetings took place, however, the university involved, Algoma, said it has not signed a new agreement with the company, nor did it sign one during the trip.
Receipts and travel itineraries obtained by Global News using freedom of information laws show the cost of travel and accommodation for Brampton staff and a councillor came to thousands of dollars, including hiring all-day drivers and staying in a hotel described on its websites as five-star.
The documents include the costs of items like hotel rooms and travel but do not tally the total cost of the trip.
Now, the city is facing questions about the overall cost of the trip to Dubai, why it wasn’t made public and if it was the most effective use of public money.
Brampton councillor, staff head out
Documents obtained by Global News show Coun. Toor and a senior staffer flew from Toronto to Dubai in late April 2023, paying thousands in flights, hotel rooms and local transport.
They show the Brampton staffer’s flights cost $6,500 from Toronto to Dubai and then on to Pakistan return for a trip the city said was separate in May.
The cost of Toor’s flights was not captured in the documents obtained through Global News’ freedom of information request.
Once in the United Arab Emirates, the Brampton delegation attended a developer day event held by Unity in Abu Dhabi, met Canadian embassy officials and toured startup incubator projects, an itinerary for the trip shared by the City of Brampton shows.
An invoice from a travel agency for the City of Brampton says hotel rooms for less than a week came to just under $6,700 for two rooms. Coun. Toor and the staffer stayed at W Dubai – Mina Seyahi, which describes itself as a five-star hotel and “luxury adult-only hotel for the discerned traveler.”
Toor told Global News the hotel was selected by city staff and was “in line with any applicable policies” around cost and other factors.
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“The Economic Development Office chose the hotel and made the booking in line with any applicable city policies,” he said in response to emailed questions.
“The location of this hotel was outside the busy downtown core and close to the highway, which made it easier to navigate and in a timely manner. As for the self description of the hotel, I am sure all hotels in Dubai market themselves as a luxury stay for tourists.”
The city also paid over $4,000 for transport to visit Abu Dhabi, hiring chauffeur-driven vehicles during the trip and paying $266.56 for a “business lunch” with Unity, the documents show.
Toor said travel arrangements were made by city staff. “City staff handle these logistics in line with city policy,” he said.
In response to questions about whether the trip was transparent, Toor said he works hard to promote his actions as an elected councillor on social media.
“My goal is to not just be transparent, but to also be informative,” he said.
“For a young person like me, it is a huge learning curve and I feel it is best to provide a learning opportunity to other young people in Brampton. This way they too can know what is work like for an elected representative, and they too can do the same if they choose to.”
Jay Goldberg, Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said he questioned whether local councillors should be working on international pitches instead of provincial or federal organizations.
“I don’t think frankly that that’s actually the role of municipal government,” he told Global News, pointing to the provincial ministry of economic development as a better channel.
“It’s definitely questionable whether this was really done in terms of really respecting taxpayer dollars. If you’re going to go on this trip, which again is highly unusual to do on the taxpayer dime and is already highly questionable, to do so and then to turn it into sort of luxurious trip just really makes it all the more egregious.”
Mayor diverts trip to join
Despite questions about the cost, the trip by Coun. Toor and the city staffer went so well, according to the mayor’s office, that Patrick Brown changed around a separate trip he was already taking to meet with Unity to try and close an investment deal.
“The Mayor amended his trip to Pakistan to make one final pitch in Abu Dhabi after he heard of the success of Councillor Toor’s visit and that this deal was close,” Brown’s director of communications told Global News, adding that “he did so at his own expense.”
Brown’s office said that Unity — which did not respond to an email from Global News — asked for Brown to be present.
“Unity had requested to meet with the Mayor during his trip, and Algoma also requested his attendance at this meeting to enhance partnerships and foster innovation in Brampton,” Brown’s office said.
Brown’s office said that “as a result of the pitch” Unity is “now moving to Brampton’s Centre for Innovation,” which is located in the city’s downtown.
Toor told Global News his trip to the United Arab Emirates was independent of the mayor’s in timeline and the two did not cross paths while they were away.
University says no new deal signed
It’s unclear exactly what came from the deal, with the university involved not signing any new agreement since the trip took place.
While Brown’s office said it was his pitch that secured a move from Unity to Brampton, Algoma University and Unity had announced a strikingly similar deal just under six months earlier.
A December 2022 news release from the two institutions boasted that Algoma University, “in partnership with Unity,” would be hosting the inauguration of its National Centre of Excellence.
“The NCoE is a culmination of an already-established partnership between the two organizations,” the news release said.
A spokesperson for the Algoma initially told Global News that the university was “not aware of any plans involving Unity relocating to Brampton” and, after more questions, said it was looped in on the 2023 trip to Dubai.
“The purpose of the visit was to provide the Mayor with an opportunity to see firsthand the advancements at the Unity Centre in Abu Dhabi that has been built by the government there,” the spokesperson said.
“It would reflect innovative technologies and their potential through public private partnerships that could potentially have applications in Brampton.”
The university said, however, that it did not believe that the visit had resulted in a new commitment.
“No, Algoma University did not sign anything during the trip or since,” the spokesperson said.
Critics question value for money
Former Brampton councillor Elaine Moore said that even if an eventual commitment from Unity does materialize from the trip, it doesn’t look to her like a responsible use of money.
“I believe it is completely unnecessary the amount of travel that is taking place right now,” Moore, a vocal critic of Brown, told Global News.
She suggested that with the rise in virtual meetings since the pandemic, and the fact a partnership already existed between Algoma and Unity, the trip could have been handled online.
“It’s a lot of money, people have grown quite accustomed to doing business differently, even though it’s nice to see a new part of the world, I don’t think the taxpayers should be paying for that,” Moore said.