Toronto’s economic development chair has dined in Stockholm, explored the resorts of Dubai and stayed in a landmark Hollywood hotel for $919 a night, all on the taxpayer’s dime.

Councillor Michael Thompson, chair of economic development committee, has spent $75,338 to travel around the world in 2016 and 2017, more than the previous chair, any city councillors and even the mayor. He almost always claimed the full amount of travel allowance for food and other expenses, even when meals were provided, and for cellphone bills with steep roaming charges, including one for about $2,000 the same month he went to India and Sri Lanka.

Thompson says it is money well spent, as he searches for trade and business opportunities for Toronto.

The details of what more than half of the money was spent on remain unknown because of a loophole in how the city reports councillor expenses. While the totals for all trips are reported to council each year, only travel receipts filed through councillors’ offices are automatically made public online. Travel expenses paid for by city divisions are not.

The city did not provide an explanation as to why this discrepancy exists.

Each Toronto city councillor has an office budget of $32,732 a year for expenses related to serving ward constituents and to travel to meet with other levels of government, according to city policy. City divisions comprise professional staff tasked with executing decisions made by council and running the municipal government.

For nine trips Thompson took on behalf of the Economic Development and Culture division, how $38,482 was spent remains unexplained. The receipts are unavailable to the public. The city said the Star would have to file a freedom of information request to obtain the documents, which could take months.

“If I had them, I’d give them to you. For me there’s no secrets,” said Thompson (Ward 37 Scarborough Centre), in an interview. “My view is anything I do is open to scrutiny because I do it on behalf of not only the office, but part of our focus is to create opportunities for residents in the City of Toronto.”

Expense receipts for two other trips Thompson took in 2016, funded in part by a city corporation called Invest Toronto, also remain unavailable to the public. Invest Toronto, which helped connect businesses to foreign investors, was run by Thompson, Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong, the economic development manager, two other councillors and citizens. It is now “winding down,” said City of Toronto spokesperson Wynna Brown.

Brown could not provide the receipts to the Star, which were requested May 16. More than a week later she has not definitively said where the receipts are kept. The receipts represent $15,081 in taxpayer money for Thompson’s travels in Japan, China and Dubai, and Brazil, Uruguay, Panama and Mexico.

Thompson, who was in China last week, travels as a representative of the city to drive international investment and trade for Toronto and put it on par with “global cities” like New York and Chicago, he said.

“We have to compete globally. We can’t just say that we’re doing it, we actually have to do it,” Thompson said, noting he’s taken an “aggressive approach” to selling Toronto to the world.

Thompson was first appointed chair of the economic development committee in 2010 by then-mayor Rob Ford. Under Tory’s leadership, Thompson has travelled what he called an “unprecedented” but necessary amount to create opportunities for Toronto’s businesses. Every public dollar he uses for travel he said he expects to be multiplied many times over in future investments.

The previous economic development chair Kyle Rae (who gained notoriety when he threw himself a $12,000 taxpayer-funded retirement party in 2010) spent a relatively meagre $36,239 for travel in 2008 and 2009.

Councillor Shelley Carroll spent the second most on travel between 2016 and 2017 at $34,787 in city funds. Tory spent a total of $38,707.

Other councillors are more frugal on trips. Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, for example, went to Ottawa for $680 in 2016 and Chicago for $802 in 2017. Last year, Councillor James Pasternak went to New York City for $640 and to Ottawa for $426.

Tory is supportive of Thompson’s work, said spokesperson Don Peat.

“The mayor firmly believes in promoting the city to help grow jobs and opportunities for Toronto residents. He relies on Councillor Michael Thompson to champion the city and encourage investment here,” Peat said in an email.

“As the mayor has said many times, he does not direct individual councillors on how or when they should travel.”

In 2016 and 2017, Thompson spent more than 100 nights elsewhere using city funds — in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta, Michigan, California, Florida, Brazil, Uruguay, Panama, Mexico, Dubai, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, China, England, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, France, Germany and Portugal. He’s also billed the city for trips to Oakville, Niagara-on-the-Lake and, on several occasions, Ottawa.

He’s met business owners in Brazil and China who have since set up locations in Toronto, or signed agreements to purchase products from local businesses, he said. The tech conference Collision is coming to Toronto starting in 2019 for three years, after Thompson met with representatives in London and Lisbon. He said the event will generate $147 million annually.

In January 2017, Thompson travelled to Los Angeles with Tory and 40 other delegates to “strengthen existing relationships with Toronto’s key investment partners in film, television and digital media production and to secure future investment,” said a staff report from May 2017.

Thompson’s receipts for this trip are the only ones the city has provided the Star from the Economic Development and Culture division.

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The receipts reveal his two-night stay at the Chateau Marmont, marketed online as a “great castle on the hill” overlooking Sunset Blvd., cost taxpayers $1,838.79.

Thompson said he stayed there because it was the one “the whole film community” decided on in collaboration with city staff.

When asked if he requested to stay at the Chateau Marmont, he said, “Hell no. I have not requested any hotel on any occasion of my travel.”

His trip cost a total of $2,923. Tory, who stayed in a different hotel, billed the city for $1,832.

Thompson said maintaining the city’s relationship with the L.A. film and TV industry through missions and meetings has helped grow Toronto’s industry from about $1 billion a decade ago to $2 billion in 2016.

On other occasions, Thompson travels to events closer to home.

The city spent $625 to send Thompson to a Federation of Canadian Municipalities board meeting in Oakville in September 2016.

Thompson stayed for two nights in the Holiday Inn for $134 a night, less than two kilometres from Bronte Go Station. He accumulated more than 260 kilometres of mileage, which the city paid for, driving from Oakville to downtown Toronto for the Toronto International Film Festival and back again both days. He said it demonstrates his responsibilities as a busy economic development chair — to not only attend meetings but also events.

Participants of the meeting were provided with hot breakfasts and lunches, as well as a dinner at the Royal Botanical Gardens, but Thompson claimed the maximum amount in travel allowance, $100 each day for three days.

Like all councillors, he is not required to provide receipts to account for how he spends the travel allowance, which the city provides to cover meals, personal telephone calls, entertainment and other personal expenses, said Brown, the city spokesperson.

Councillors Josh Colle and Mike Layton also attended the board meeting, but did not stay in a hotel, and each billed the city for $180 in total expenses.

Claiming the full travel allowance is a practice Thompson, who as a councillor receives $139,160 last year in compensation, does almost without exception.

When Thompson travelled to Ottawa June 1 to 5, 2017 for a Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference, the registration fee cost taxpayers $938, which included daily breakfasts, lunches and a gala dinner. He also claimed the full travel allowance of $500.

Thompson said he doesn’t “necessarily” participate in these provided meals and “worrying” about going to them is “not a focus.”

“I will go and have breakfast elsewhere, I will go and have meetings. I use my per diem to pay for lunch,” he said.

These expenses plus a four-night stay in the Radisson, return flight from Billy Bishop Airport, airport limo service and taxi fares cost taxpayers $2,783.

Correction - May 28, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Mayor John Tory was on the board of Invest Toronto. In fact, Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnon -Wong was on the board as the mayor’s designate.

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