Gallery boss runs big expense tab
Travel, hospitality claims exceed $370,000 since 2009 appointment
The director of the National Gallery of Canada claimed more than $70,000 last year for travel and hospitality expenses, according to records posted on the gallery’s website.
Marc Mayer’s claims were 134-per-cent higher than those of Denise Amyot, then president and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Science and Technology Corp., and about five times more than claims by his peers at the museums of civilization and nature.
According to records released through proactive disclosure, Mayer spent $67,273 on travel and $3,445 on business meals in 2012. Amyot, who took up a new job this June as president and CEO of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges, claimed $30,260 last year for travel and hospitality.
Mark O’Neill, president and CEO of the corporation that runs the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Canadian War Museum, claimed $14,142, while Meg Beckel, president and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Nature, claimed $15,304.32.
Since his appointment in January 2009, Mayer has claimed more than $370,000 in travel and hospitality expenses.
In addition to his 2012 expenses, he claimed more than $80,000 in 2009, $105,221 in 2010, $90,176 in 2011 and $24,192 in the first three months of this year.
In an email response to questions from the Citizen, gallery spokesperson Josée-Britanie Mallet said the expenses claimed by Mayer are “standard operational costs that are normal to an art museum of the stature of the National Gallery of Canada” and are within budgeted amounts.
“The mandates of the national museums are different, and we can’t comment on other institutions’ budgets,” she said.
Mallet said the nature of the gallery’s business requires Mayer to meet with peers from other institutions to discuss loans, exchange policies and other initiatives.
Because revenue generation is a key focus of the gallery, Mayer also must meet with potential donors and take part in fundraising activities, Mallet said. And to fulfil the gallery’s national mandate, his presence at special art events across Canada is often required.
As gallery director, Mayer earns between $175,600 and $206,500 a year, with a performance bonus of up to 15 per cent. A Franco-Ontarian originally from Sudbury, he was director of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal prior to his appointment in 2009 to a five-year term.
The national gallery has been in cost-cutting mode for several years as it struggles to cope with rising costs and frozen budgets. In February, the gallery announced it was eliminating 29 positions and creating seven new ones. It also laid off five curators in 2011 and cut 27 positions in 2010.
But Mallet said the gallery has made a commitment to reduce its expenses across the organization “as much as possible without jeopardizing (Mayer’s) essential activities, role and responsibilities that are imperative to the fulfilment of the institution’s mission and mandate.”
Mayer submitted claims for 26 trips last year, roughly twice as many as either Amyot, O’Neill or Beckel. Eight were foreign trips, including a 12-day jaunt through Europe that cost a cool $12,289 and another 19day trip to Holland, Germany, France and England that rang in at $11,829.
By contrast, Amyot took five foreign trips last year, the priciest being an eight-day conference and meeting in Paris costing $7,436. Beckel and O’Neill travelled outside Canada just once each.
Mayer also spent more on meals last year than his three peers combined. And he had a preference for some of Ottawa’s finer restaurants.
Though about one-third of Mayer’s nearly three dozen hospitality claims were for meals at the national gallery, he also claimed seven meals at Luxe Bistro, three at Domus, and single repasts at Restaurant E18teen, the Whalesbone and Beckta, among others.
Amyot favoured moderately priced ethnic restaurants near the science and technology museum in Ottawa’s suburbs, such as Oh Basil and the Mandarin Ogilvie. Her largest claims were for brown-bag pizza lunches for students at the museum.
The majority of O’Neill’s meals were at Bistro Boréal, the museum of civilization’s restaurant. When he did eat out, it was at places such as Flippers in the Glebe or the Airport Hilton and Lord Elgin hotels. His largest single claim, $150, was for a lunch at the Kiwanis Club of Ottawa.
Beckel submitted just one expense claim for hospitality last year, $180 for a strategic planning workshop involving 15 participants.
Until this week, the national gallery had not posted any reports on Mayer’s travel and hospitality expenses in 2013. But Thursday, after inquiries by the Citizen, it disclosed his claims for the first quarter of the year. The other three national museums in the region had already posted 2013 disclosure reports.
The gallery’s report shows that Mayer spent $22,162 on travel between Jan. 1 and March 31 of this year, including $11,212 for a 16-day excursion to Maastrich, Glasgow, Edinburgh and London. He also claimed more than $2,000 for 13 business meals.
The 2013 reports posted by the science and technology museum show that Amyot took two pricey foreign trips before leaving the museum at the end of May: a $9,746 excursion to Tokyo in January, apparently at the request of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and an $8,177 trip to New Delhi to attend a meeting of the Canada-India Joint Science & Technology Cooperation Committee.
Altogether, Amyot billed for nearly $24,000 in travel and hospitality expenses during her final five months on the job. O’Neill submitted expenses of $5,773 up to May 31 of this year, while Beckel billed $4,551 up to March 1.