Moe spent $28K in nine months travelling Sask.
Flights and ground travel account for majority of the spending
REGINA The provincial government has released Premier Scott Moe’s in-province travel expenses since April 2019, after the Saskatchewan NDP spent weeks faulting the government as a laggard on transparency for ministerial spending.
The government also pledged to release itemized quarterly reports for ministerial travel both in-province and out-of-province going forward.
Moe expensed $27,873.47 for travel, meals and accommodation within the province from April 2019 to January 2020.
Flights and ground travel made up the bulk of Moe’s expenses. The premier took three in-province charter flights over that period, and five commercial flights.
He also expensed two “working dinner” meetings in Regina, with the most expensive costing $134.45.
The Saskatchewan NDP had been seeking Moe’s travel expenses and receipts through a freedom of information request, but balked at a $1,690 bill the government sent its way in January.
NDP Leader Ryan Meili noted that other provinces, such as Alberta and B.C., publish far more detailed information about ministerial travel, sometimes including receipts for individual purchases.
The NDP later managed to secure records for a number of government ministers, including Education Minister Gord Wyant.
It criticized a number of lunches and coffee meetings he expensed, including a $57.95 lunch with a former cabinet minister and a $9.77 coffee appointment with his deputy minister.
But expenses for other ministers remained stuck behind hefty fee estimates. The NDP called on the government to release all ministerial travel information before the spring legislative sitting, which began on Monday.
Currently, the Saskatchewan government only publishes ministerial travel reports for outof-province trips, and only once every six months.
The province said in a release that it will now publish that information on a quarterly basis, and will do the same for trips inside Saskatchewan.
The disclosure will include an itemized account of flights within the province, as well as an itemized account of meals.
The government will also release total expenses for accommodation, ground travel and meal per diems.
The information will be broken down by month.
The disclosure will start in the fiscal year 2020-21, which begins on April 1.