With the tip of the COVID-19 pandemic, journey bills at Investissement Québec (IQ) reached a brand new excessive this spring.
• Additionally learn: Minister Fitzgibbon’s journeys are getting an increasing number of costly
• Additionally learn: The governor-general’s journeys price greater than $2.7 million
From early April via late June, IQ spent greater than $680,000 on journey bills for all staff.
The earlier excessive for quarterly journey bills was almost $500,000 and dates again to 2018, in accordance with knowledge launched on the state-owned firm’s web site.
The spring journey expense spike can’t be defined by expensive journey by IQ CEO Man LeBlanc, as he solely claimed $89 for 3 journeys.
Man LeBlanc, CEO of Investissement Québec (foreground), and Secretary of Commerce Pierre Fitzgibbon. Archive photograph
What number of journeys?
Catherine Salvail, spokeswoman for the state-owned firm, refused to inform the Journal what number of journeys had been made with the roughly $680,000 spent.
Nevertheless, she assured that IQ’s journey bills for the primary half of 2023 are “per worker comparable” to these of 2019, i.e. earlier than the pandemic.
It should be stated that the variety of IQ staff fell from 571 in March 2020 to 1,220 in March 2023 because the state-owned firm took over authorities businesses and carried out a hiring drive.
Ms. Salvail indicated that just about two-thirds of journey bills “are attributable to the actions of Investissement Québec Worldwide groups.” Based in 2020, this division, headed by Hubert Bolduc, is devoted to attracting international funding and selling Quebec’s exports.
Resumption of worldwide missions
“Since October 2022, the actions of our international missions have been operating usually once more, which has led to a major enhance within the participation of our groups in lots of strategic occasions at worldwide stage,” stated the spokesman.
Notice that journey bills had been even larger within the interval from early January to late March 2023. They reached almost $1.3 million, however included “journey bills from earlier intervals because of circumstances surrounding COVID-19, which triggered further processing instances,” explains IQ.
From April 2020 to March 2023, journey bills averaged $345,000. This compares to the $270,000 common recorded in fiscal 2019-20 earlier than the pandemic-related journey restrictions and IQ enlargement.
Journey bills of the Crown Company
July 2022 to June 2023
- Hydro-Quebec: $55.1 million
- Investissement Québec: $3.3M (together with previous expenditures)
- Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec: $2.4 million
- Société des alcools du Quebec: $2.2 million
- Loto-Québec: Info not out there
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