The 12 Parliamentary Associations that organize the trips through exchange associations with legislators in other countries reduced their travel budgets last year, along with other cuts to Parliamentary spending as result of the government’s strategic program review to reduce costs.
But reports tabled in Parliament from the 40 excursions that have taken place since March, 2012, show that 48 Conservatives went on these trips, 33 NDP MPs took trips and 18 Liberals participated in the trips.
Four Conservative MPs, along with two NDP MPs, one Liberal MP and two Conservative Senators and a Liberal Senator, spent the most on one trip—$120,030 for a seven-day tour of four major cities in China.
Conservative MPs Daryl Kramp (Prince Edward-Hastings, Ont.), LaVar Payne (Medicine Hat, Alta.), Andrew Saxton (North Vancouver, B.C.) and Bev Shipley (Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, Ont.), along with NDP MPs Olivia Chow (Toronto-Spadina, Ont.) and Don Davies (Vancouver-Kingsway, B.C.) and Liberal MP John McCallum (Markham-Unionville, Ont.) took the journey as part of their duties with the Canada-China Legislative Association. Conservative Senators Neil Plett and Terry Stratton were along, as well as Liberal Senator Joseph Day.
The excursion included visits to Beijing, Xiamen, Hangzhou and Shanghai, and included meetings with Chinese government leaders and other officials.
All of the reports from the 40 Parliamentary Association trips include descriptions of the Canadian participation in conferences, as well as meetings with government dignitaries and political or legal figures in some of the countries. The reports do not include a schedule, with details on dinners or entertainment and tours the hosts provide, or how much time the MPs and senators spend at official events.
The head of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said the list of trips would upset taxpayers and voters, considering the cuts in government services and programs over the past year. “All this jet-setting by politicians is in bad taste in these times, especially the politicians who have no foreign policy responsibilities and no constituents whose jobs depend on investment from Ireland, New Orleans, Vladivostok, or some of the interesting beach locales,” said Gregory Thomas, national director of the taxpayers lobby group.
The Parliamentary Association trip to Myrtle Beach was one of most inexpensives trips, since only one MP went—St. Catharines, Ont., MP Rick Dykstra, whose expenses totalled $4,652, including $2,340 for transportation as he went to Myrtle Beach May 20-22, 2012, on behalf of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group to attend the fifth annual conference of the Southeastern U.S.-Canadian Provinces Alliance.
A trip to the Colombian coastal city of Cartagena by Conservative MP Earl Dreeshan (Red Deer, Alta.) and two Senators, Conservative Michael MacDonald and Liberal Jim Munson, cost a total of $21,595, for participation in a ParlAmericas conference.
Conservative MPs Mike Wallace (Burlington, Ont.), Gerald Keddy (South Shore-St. Margaret’s, N.S.) Pierre Lemieux (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, Ont.) and Colin Mayes (Okanagan-Shuswap, B.C.), along with NDP MPs Ryan Cleary (St. John’s South-Mount Pearl, Nfld.) and Marc-Andre Morin (Laurentides-Labelle, Que.), spent May 20-25 last year in Tokyo and the Tohoku region of Japan for a meeting of the Canada-Japan Inter-Parliamentary Group. Costs totalled $97,760, including $71,612 for travel, $17,390 for accommodation, $2,874 for hospitality, $2,618 on per diems, $1,506 for Official Gifts and $1,757 listed as “Miscellaneous/Registration Fees.”
Conservative MP Randy Hoback (Prince Albert, Sask.) and Conservative Senator Michael MacDonald might have spent the most on a per capita basis as the two Conservatives. The two Conservatives, along with a secretary, spent $19,362 on a trip to the Chilean seaport city of Valparaiso, to take part in a two-day meeting of the board of directors of ParlAmericas on May 11 and 12. Transportation costs totalled $17,425, their report says, with only $1,326 for accommodation, no hospitality spending, $564 for per diems and $45 for official gifts.
Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton, Ont.), who defended a government bill this week that would give Cabinet control over Crown corporation collective agreements to rein in salaries and other costs, declined to say anything about the Parliamentary travel costs. “I’d rather not comment on it until I have a chance to review it,” said Mr. Poilievre, the Parliamentary secretary for Transport Minister Denis Lebel (Roberval-Lac Saint Jean, Que.), said.
Mr. Kramp, the former chair of the Canadian section of the Canada-China group, defended his association’s travel, but said he could not comment on trips by other associations. “I can’t talk about every one, because I don’t have experience in every one,” said Mr. Kramp.
“All I can tell you is the ones I was involved in. I don’t need junkets, no such thing. I go there, I go to get something done. I go there to work, and bring back a result,” Mr. Kramp said.
Liberal MP John McKay (Scarborough-Guildwood, Ont.) also defended the travelling. “We are cheap diplomats. That’s what we boil down to, and you can actually access at an entirely different level, particularly in the U.S., you can actually get in and talk to Senators and Congressmen, they love to talk to you actually, but our ambassador down there can’t crack it,” Mr. McKay said.
Two Conservative MPs, along with one New Democrat and a Liberal, took the Parliamentary trip to Monaco, as the Canadian delegation to a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The MPs, Conservatives Dean Allison (Niagara West-Glanbrook, Ont.) and Dave Van Kesteren (Chatham-Kent-Essex, Ont.), NDP MP Nycole Turmel (Hull-Aylmer, Que.) and Liberal Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre, B.C.) spent $44,125 on the July 5-9 trip last year, including $24,832 on transportation, $13,042 on accommodation, $776 on hospitality and $5,464 on per diems.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: TIM NAUMETZ
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