Campion faces questions about travel expenses

Welland Mayor Frank Campion faced intense scrutiny from his colleagues after claiming just over $18,000 in expenses to attend some nine events in 2025, including an event in Germany.  

Campion’s expenses made up nearly 40 per cent of Council’s overall travel and conference expenses, with total expenses claimed by Campion and Welland’s 12 Councillors amounting to just over $50,000. 

Some members of Council, including Councillor Graham Speck, who has announced plans to run for mayor later this year, questioned why Campion exceeded his $10,000 conference and convention budget that was set by Council via the budget process. 

Campion justified most of his conference trips by pointing to the need for promoting economic development. 

Some questions were friendlier, such as those coming from Councillor John Chiocchio (Ward 3), who simply asked Campion if there were any after-action reports available to justify why he attended each conference. 

Councillor Tony DiMarco (Ward 4) suggested that perhaps it was time for members of Council to chip in if they want to attend conferences, citing high costs and concerns about how taxpayer dollars are being spent. 

But it was a back-and-forth between Speck and Campion that really turned the Council meeting into a heated one, particularly when it came to Campion exceeding his $10,000 budget. 

 “What mechanisms exist to ensure accountability when technically it’s a budget overrun of a $10,000 budget line item, up to $18,000?” asked Speck.

Speck also pointed out that the $10,000 budget was part of Campion’s strong mayor budget and was a number that Campion himself had originally proposed. 

“What mechanisms are in place?” Speck asked staff, demanding that Campion’s spending be held in check. 

“Nothing was brought to Council to say, ‘are we okay with this?’” Speck added. “Where is the check and balance?”

Treasurer Melanie Steele said staff regularly monitor all spending through quarterly variance reports but also insisted it would be unreasonable for Councillors like Speck to expect staff to report on every variance in real time. 

“There could be variances, and it would be unreasonable to expect that we’re going to be exactly at the dollar value of the budget on every given line,” Steele said.

Speck shot back, challenging Steele, noting that this variance was not “minor,” but rather “almost double.”

Campion attempted to defend himself, arguing that he’s not going to conferences “for fun” or as a “vacation.” Rather, Campion argued that he attends such conferences to represent “our community, connecting, networking, learning, attending seminars. You’re bettering our community by going to these things. It’s important that we attend them.” 

Still, other Councillors, like Councillor Bonnie Fokkens (Ward 6) remained critical, arguing that Councillors are told what their budgets are, and are told not to go over that, and asked why the same rules wouldn’t apply to Campion.

“Certain things come up,” Campion responded, pointing in particular to the tariff threat faced in 2025 as a major reason for travel, including his trip to Germany. “In these critical times, we have to take extraordinary measures.”