Premier won’t repay trip cash
$45,000 travel bill to South Africa elicits apology
Premier Alison Redford ponied up an apology Monday for the Tory government’s handling of her trip to Nelson Mandela’s funeral, but no cash to pay back the $45,000 bill.
With no reimbursement to taxpayers, opposition parties said the premier’s mea culpa meant nothing.
Redford has come under fire for the expense of the December trip to South Africa, which included a $15,000 flight to Ottawa on an Alberta government plane to catch a free ride on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s jet.
The premier’s spokesperson initially said the provincial government aircraft was used because the only other option that would allow Redford to meet Harper’s plane was a red-eye flight. However, the premier’s office later said it had not been aware of another commercial flight to Ottawa that had been available at a fraction of the cost.
“It has certainly come to my attention that there were some decisions made that week without the full and complete information that we could have had, which didn’t even follow our normal procedure in terms of trip planning,” Redford told reporters Monday.
“Mistakes were made. I accept responsibility for that and I apologize.”
The government also spent $10,000 on a commercial flight home for Redford, although she could have returned with Harper at no cost.
Redford said there was uncertainty over when Harper’s plane would depart and she needed to be back in time for the swearing-in of her new cabinet, though the two flight sultimately arrived the same day. A further $20,000 was spent to cover the travel costs of an aide to accompany Redford to South Africa.
Both the Wildrose and Liberal opposition parties have called for Redford to reimburse the government for the travel expenses, but she declined to do so.
“This was a trip that was part of the Canadian delegation, it was business of the government of Alberta and I attended on that basis,” said Redford, who was invited by Harper to Mandela’s funeral because she had worked with the South African leader in the early 1990s. “We’re going to move forward.” Asked why the trip qualified as provincial business, Redford reiterated she had been invited to be part of the national delegation and noted the opportunity to “have discussions with people who were on that trip with respect to work in Alberta.”
“I do think it’s part of the work that a premier is asked to do at particular points in time,” she added.
But Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson said Redford is “only hurting herself” by refusing to pay back the “excess” cost of the trip.
“My mother always said … an apol- ogy without restitution isn’t really an apology,” he said.
“When you apologize, you do what you can to undo the damage. Sometimes that’s not possible, but this time it is.”
Liberal Leader Raj Sherman said the province shouldn’t have paid for what amounted to a “personal trip” for Redford in the first place.
But the situation is made worse because Redford ran up an outrageous bill, especially in comparison to Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil, who spent less than $1,000 to take part in the South Africa trip, said Sherman. “An apology is not good enough. She has to return the money,” he said. “She’s the premier, with direct oversight of her travel. It’s $45,000 wasted.”