As Harper was flying overseas more often, the Prime Minister’s Office cut its spending on staff, communications and other costs by 15 per cent in the 2011-12 budget year to around $7.6 million, compared to about $9 million the previous year, according to federal public accounts tabled Tuesday in the House of Commons.
However, some of the expenditure reductions in the PMO in 2011-12 are from ministers’ offices largely shutting down for about six weeks during the 2011 federal election campaign, when staff take unpaid leaves of absences.
International travel expenditures for ministers, their parliamentary secretaries and ministerial staff also increased, up 11 per cent last fiscal year, to about $2.2 million, at a time public servants were asked to tighten their belts.
Cabinet as a whole chopped its expenditures, with total spending in ministers’ offices down almost 12 per cent to about $53 million, although a good chunk of that is believed to be due to offices scaling back operations during the federal election campaign.
In his first year with a majority government, Harper travelled abroad more than a dozen times on his Canadian Forces Airbus to major foreign conferences and on official state visits, including to China, Brazil, Australia, Hawaii, France, Japan, Thailand, Korea, Switzerland and Washington, D.C.
Most of the conferences Harper attended are seen as mandatory for international leaders, including the G8/G20, APEC and Commonwealth summits, to name a few, while his trip to China was seen as a key bilateral visit to strengthen ties with the Asian powerhouse.
All told, the federal government spent about $5.7 million in 2011-12 (up 72 per cent from $3.3 million the previous year) on travel expenses for the prime minister’s trips to international conferences and meetings, including for Harper, his ministers, department staff and advance teams, according to the documents.
An additional $8 million was spent in 2011-12 on expenditures “such as hospitality and conference fees” for the prime minister’s international trips, up about 75 per cent from $4.5 million the previous year.
Andrew MacDougall, the prime minister’s director of communications, said Harper travelled overseas more in 2011-12 than the previous year partly because Canada hosted the G8 and G20 summits in 2010, meaning less travel in 2010-11.
Other major meetings, such as the conference of Commonwealth leaders Harper attended in 2011-12, is only held every two years, he noted, while the prime minister’s China missions also only happen every few years. Furthermore, the prime minister has been travelling abroad to sign important free trade deals or launch negotiations, he said.
“We represent Canadians at multiple summits around the world. It depends on where they’re being hosted. Sometimes we travel quite far, sometimes they’re at home,” MacDougall said Tuesday. “These are important for the Canadian economy so we have to make the travel to do that, and we always endeavour to spend taxpayer dollars responsibly when we’re on the road.”
The government as a whole spent about $10.2 million in 2011-12 on “hospitality and conference fees” for Canadian representation at international conferences and meetings, including for Harper, cabinet ministers and the Governor General — a 31 per cent increase over the previous year.
Broken down, the prime minister’s most expensive trip in 2011-12 was his visit to Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica and Honduras, which cost taxpayers almost $941,000 in travel expenses for Harper, a handful of ministers and dozens of advisors and employees from the PMO, Privy Council Office, Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and other departments.
Also, the government spent nearly $1.2 million on additional hospitality and conference fees for the same five-day visit to Latin America in August 2011.
Harper’s five-day trip to China in February 2012 for an official state visit and to promote trade cost approximately $725,000 in travel expenditures, and $972,000 in hospitality and conference fees.
Among Harper’s cabinet, International Trade Minister Ed Fast (along with his parliamentary secretary and staff) racked up the largest international travel expenses in 2011-12 at $350,000, with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (and parliamentary secretary and staff) next at $290,000, followed by Defence Minister Peter MacKay at $246,000.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Jason Fekete
No comments:
Post a Comment