Tourism minister apologizes, won’t elaborate on expenses
Tourism Minister Christine Cusanelli apologized Thursday for claiming and then reimbursing more than $10,000 in expenses in her first five months in cabinet, saying she would never want anyone to think she abused the taxpayers’ purse.
“I am responsible for my expenses,” Cusanelli told the legislature. “I needed to have paid closer attention to the manner in which they have been processed and for that I have apologized to Albertans.”
Premier Alison Redford stood by the rookie cabinet minister saying she was disappointed it happened, but believes the matter is settled.
“It’s been dealt with because she paid them back,” Redford told reporters. “She was advised that she had to ensure that she compensated for them, and she did. And that’s all I need to know.”
However, opposition leaders questioned whether Albertans would ever have found out about the expenses — or if they would have been paid back — if they weren’t required to be posted under Redford’s new expense disclosure policy.
“I’m glad that Minister Cusanelli has paid back inappropriate expense items,” said Liberal Leader Raj Sherman. “I am a little surprised, however, that 31 different items were allowed to be expensed. My concern is if there wasn’t an open expense policy, would this have even been rectified?”
Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said she could understand a rookie minister making an expenses filing mistake or two, but more than 30 mistakes involving more than $10,000 leaves her skeptical.
“Therewere too many of them and the dollar figure was too high for it just to have been an oversight.”
NDP Leader Brian Mason said it was “presumptuous” of Cusanelli to think she could use taxpayers’ money to buy airline tickets to London for her mother and daughter, but taking family along reinforces the public view that the trip was a junket.
“I am sure they did some business and I am sure they had some meetings and did stuff, but what is clear to me is they also had a pretty good time on the taxpayer dime,” he said.
Cusanelli declined to give specifics about the expenses, some of which she charged at last summer’s Calgary Stampede. The minister for Tourism, Parks and Recreation said only that she purchased “pins” and other items she eventually returned.
“Those were expenses obviously that shouldn’t have been put through on my government credit card so, of course, the appropriate thing to do was reimburse it,” she said.
“They would be Stampederelated expenses — plans that we had made that we actually didn’t wind up doing, so in fact, at the end of the day I paid the expenses back and also returned the items. Without getting into the weeds on all this stuff, things like pins, things like that.”
She didn’t elaborate further. The expenses became public Wednesday when the Redford government responded to a freedom of information request from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation by releasing hundreds of pages of expense receipts from cabinet ministers this year.
Cusanelli’s report stood out due to a number of charges she put on her government credit card, but later reimbursed. The biggest ticket item was $4,078 for two airline tickets for her daughter and mother to fly with her to the London Olympics.
At the time, Cusanelli was part of a provincial mission to promote Alberta. Her chief of staff, Andrew Fisher, explained Wednesday a former staffer took advantage of a ticket price sale and put all three on the card, with the expectation two tickets would be repaid right away.
The documents show Cusanelli wrote a $4,078 cheque to the province on Aug. 22, about 10 days after she returned from the trip.
Among her other reimbursed items was $850 for unknown “Calgary Stampede materials,” $965 for “ministry travel materials,” $125 for an unknown silent auction item, $100 for a Starbucks gift card, and $405 for an ATV trail ride.
Fisher said some of the problematic receipts were submitted as ministerial expenses when they should have been covered as an MLA expense or living allowance.