Canadian MPs spent $14.6M on travel in first half of 2023

CTV Scott Hurst is starting us off with that story this morning Scott good morning to you so tell us about the latest numbers on travel expenses for the MPS uh and what does this mean for Canadians good morning Marcia yeah a lot of big money questions as you framed it

With the fall economic update coming tomorrow and now getting a snapshot about MP’s travel for the first six months of the year just under $15 million was spent on travel related expenses for the first six months of the year January to June and that’s a 10% increase from the previous six months so

Travel spending is on the rise it appears MPS are on the move again of course for the past several years there were a significant amount of restrictions that were in place when it comes to the covid-19 pandemic when a lot of MPS could access the big meetings

They need to do in Ottawa remotely from their own constituencies and this works out these first 6 months that we’ve broken down almost almost for almost $15 million that works out to about $80,000 per day and of course this is significant for Canadians because this ultimately is taxpayers money MPS are

Allowed to travel they are allowed to write off several work related expenses when it comes to travel but when there is a 10% increase Marcia from the previous 6 months that is when Canadians would like to take note at a time when we’re all expected to tighten our belts

Right now when the cost of so much is going up and up and up right now it’s fair to have these questions out there and it’s fair to put these numbers out there where travel from the previous 6 months is already up 10% and RC almost

$15 million in the first six months of the year and it’s not just the governing liberals it’s the opposition leaders to Scott who are spending money what did you uh find on that front the other parties the other opposition leaders as you might expect the two main opposition opposition leaders had the largest

Travel bill that’s outside the Prime Minister who’s is separate obviously can’t travel commercial has to fly on rcaf aircraft so that’s a bit of a separate category but when it comes to travel cost for the two main opposition leaders conserva L Pier paev racking up nearly 250k in

Travel for the first six months of the year and jug meet Singh spending expensing nearly 100 just over $177,000 for the first 6 months of the year we also broke it down by party as well the conservatives Leading The Way with just over $6 million in spending on

Travel the Liberals coming in at 5.6 million and the NDP is spending about 1.5 million so Marcia some of this can be chocked up to post-pandemic travel getting back to a lot of in-person work as well of course the range of travel expenses will vary greatly for many MPS

Depending on particularly where they come from if there might be a MP who lives and their constituency is close to Ottawa their travel expenses will be much less than uh for example in mp that has a remote Northern Canadian riding that has to do several stops on smaller

Flights as well those seem to cost more so it’ll very significantly but the big headline when it comes to an increase in travel an increase in what’s being spent on travel Marcia at a time when all of us are watching our paychecks very closely and as you mentioned the fall

Economic update coming tomorrow as well in terms of the government’s priorities for spending for the rest of the year Scott Hurst for us Scott thank you for that

Canadian Members of Parliament spent more than $14.6 million on travel in the first half of 2023, an approximately 10 per cent increase over the previous six months, according to a CTV News analysis of expense reports.

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