Peter MacKay in hot water again over spending
 Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay responds to a question during question period in the House of Commons in Ottawa, Thursday Dec. 15, 2011. (Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Updated: Fri Dec. 16 2011 12:29:45
CTVNews.ca Staff
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is accusing Defence Minister Peter MacKay of living the high life at European hotels and charging taxpayers for an expensive plane ticket to the Grey Cup in Edmonton.
The tax watchdog got the information through an access-to-information request.
MacKay's two one-way flights to the football final cost $4,752, likely the result of buying fully refundable executive-class tickets purchased at the last minute, the group said on its website Friday.
The CTF said plane tickets could have been purchased for less by booking in advance, since it wasn't MacKay's first trip to the game and the date is published well ahead of the event, blogger Derek Fildebrandt wrote.
"The next Grey Cup is scheduled for Nov. 25, 2012 in Toronto, so DND can save the extra costs and book a ticket now," he wrote.
MacKay's hotel bill while in Edmonton was a reasonable $608, substantially less than his digs in Europe, which cost $1,452 a night for a two-night stay at a hotel in Munich and $770 per night for three nights in Istanbul, Turkey last year, the group said.
The latest criticism directed at MacKay's expenses caused a flurry of outrage in the House of Commons on Thursday.
"How does he explain these abuses of taxpayers' money and when will he reimburse the taxpayers?" Liberal defence critic John McKay said.
Federal officials said MacKay was staying at the Munich hotel in 2010 at the request of the German government while he attended a security conference. A spokesman for MacKay said it's standard practice for the heads of delegations to stay at the same hotel.
But Gregory Thomas, the federation's national director, told CTV News Channel the expenses are excessive and suggested representatives at the conference could have held meetings at an airbase instead.
"They decided to stay at a five-star . . . one of the swankiest hotels in all of Europe," he said. "It's a mindset and a world view that's gotten the world in a whole lot of hot water."
Countries like Greece, Portugal and Italy are essentially insolvent and shouldn't be treating their politicians like royalty, Thomas said.
He said the expenses aren't what most taxpayers would consider reasonable, pointing out MacKay's staff stayed at another hotel in Munich for $276 per night.
As for the Grey Cup flights, Thomas said, "it's crazy to pay almost $5,000 to attend a football game.
"You could not have spent more money flying to the Grey Cup if you had actually done a planning exercise to say, ‘What is the most expensive plane ticket I can possibly get?' " he said.
The group decided to file the information request after it was learned in September that MacKay had used a military helicopter to fly him out of a fishing lodge in Newfoundland, something he defended as operational since it involved a demonstration.
Opposition parties demanded his resignation at the time, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper said MacKay had done nothing wrong. |
