a veteran npmp is facing questions over expenses related to a Christmas holiday a CBC News investigation found that Nikki ashon took a $177,000 trip to Quebec City in 2022 she brought along her husband and two children all on tax fairs DME cbc’s JP Tasker broke the story and he joins me now okay uh what more can you tell us about this trip JP yeah just to recap Nikki Ashen took her family of four her partner and her two kids to Quebec City and Montreal over the Christmas period in December 202 and as you say she build the taxpayers for $177,000 that’s that’s what was associated with this trip including flights accommodations incidentals and meals champ is going to stop your for second I don’t think your microphone’s turned on uh yeah I think you’re wearing it but I think I’m going to just get up and go around to the back and uh turn this thing on does that work or hang on out here it is here we go here we go sorry folks it’s a new studio and a new renovation it’s like buying a new house you got to figure out where the light switches are so so let’s let’s let’s back up so the audience hear your work tell us about the trend yeah so Nikki Ashton took her husband and her two kids to Quebec City and Montreal over the Christmas period in December 2022 that was a trip that cost the taxpayers $177,000 including flights accommodations incidentals and it’s raising eyebrows because uh this is an MP who’s rarely on Parliament Hill she has been zooming into most of the Parliamentary proceedings since the pandemic and that is perfectly within the rules they did change the rules to allow people to join virtually and she has been taking advantage of that new rule and that’s why this trip is a little puzzling for some people because she was not here for most of the Fall sitting she came just once for four days she was not here when Parliament wrapped up for the Christmas period but flew into Ottawa 5 days after Parliament wrapped was here for a few days went on to Quebec City in Montreal we’ve seen uh social media posts that show they were enjoying a lot of winter activities in Quebec City there was some snow tubing there was some sliding there was some skating they took in the German uh Christmas marker you can see there that’s the sliding behind the shut Frac in The Old City Center there but Nikki Ashton telling us today that it wasn’t just for pleasure that she was there also on parliamentary business that she was meeting with people around the issues of linguistics and the French language she wanted to learn more about the place of French in Quebec and in Canada but it was as I say an expensive learning experience $ 17,641 12 on this trip in total including 13,000 on flights Alone David okay so the interesting thing on this is that Nikki is it uses the virtual Parliament quite a bit she she’s very rarely you see her on Parliament otwa and then the timing of this trip and taking the family so she had a she was in Ottawa today she had a press conference uh this morning and you were there how is she reacting uh to this yeah we asked her a bunch of questions about this in particular who was she meeting with she said she was meeting with linguistic experts she wanted to learn more about French and Quebec okay well who were you speaking to can you give us the name of one person that you met with can you give us the name of a group that you might have met with and she was not able to to say those details publicly have a listen to what she did say I feel it’s important that as anyone involved in official languages that we are engaging with people from uh uh frankophone communities across the country and nowhere is more frankophone than Quebec and Quebec City who did you meet with in Quebec City and Montreal on the issue of the French language I I met with various people and uh and I just want to be uh clear that uh um the rules of the House of Commons are very clear um you know whether we meet as on constituency issues or uh critic areas uh that uh that’s understood to be part of our work it seems like you’re just dancing around this like who did you meet with on your trip and what did you discuss with them yeah so I’m just going to go back and make very clear the House of Commons has rules on this uh and I was there in my capacity as official languages critic so as you heard there she would only say various people she would not actually give us any names the party did follow up afterwards to give a a little more specificity saying she met with the Quebec black community on cultural issues an author and people involved in the union movement but people are asking was this worth the cost was this worth $117,000 to the taxpayers is this a appropriate use of parliamentary resources especially when the government’s trying to cut back on travel expenses okay JP thanks so much that’s the cbc’s JP Tasker there were mixed opinions on Ashton’s expense trips from her fellow MPS it seems like a really odd time of the year to be traveling for work I can only speak for myself and I always try to follow the rules that are in place unbelievable Merry Christmas to Nikki Ashton from the Canadian taxpayers okay the uh there goes JP the power panel was listening in and are with me on this Andrew Thompson Carri Keller carolen Varan and Emily Nicola uh you saw my first attempt at um technical support there Emily as I had to fix a microphone what do you make of this um you’re not in Parliament a lot um I know it’s tough to get here from Thompson Manitoba uh but then you take a trip Christmas time like this with the husband the partner and the two kids big deal no deal what do you think okay sorry the questions are on me yes Emily thank you sorry so uh it is it is fishy I do think that uh JP is right uh in asking question I also do think that uh it’s worth for the NDP to give a clearer answer than this in terms of the actual list of names of people that have been that have been uh met with I wish for myself that the NDP and uh anyos leader uh is taking the issue of official languages seriously and therefore are making those kind of trips making those connections uh but as someone you know from cubec City I who’s worked in linguistics I’m really cous to know uh which are the experts who are the people that Nik ason has been has been meeting with uh the question is so partisan in some way uh language rights in Quebec and so if you’re meeting from different m&as from different parties uh if you’re meeting from with uh even different social linguistic experts uh demograph you’re going to get a very very different uh view of the issue it’s a very fraud issue um and just the way that she’s been skating around the topic doesn’t tell me that she’s been meeting with a lot of people otherwise had a sense of just how difficult that issue actually is from cubec society and so um you know the the the more the more detail she’s unable to get uh the more questions that I have and I’m more concerned about that frankly than about $177,000 in the grander shim the Canadian you know budget uh but I I’m just I’m just concerned about you know if you’re the official position official language critic that that job is indeed about meeting up with people and so if you’re spending time in Quebec and not actually meeting up with people that much that’s a question I have an issue with regardless of how much money was SP or not for that trip Andrew how do you how do you see this one well Emily’s being very generous I think on this it’s uh I think it doesn’t it doesn’t look good I mean I don’t doubt that it’s within the rules it’s a bit like when the conservative MPS were flying their wives out to uh the Caucus meeting that just happened to be right next to their convention I mean all this stuff is probably you know wink wink nudge nudge okay within the rules but it just looks like a sense of entitlement and people don’t like that and especially don’t like that right now and you know the answer that she gave wasn’t uh satisfactory and I think the party clearly must know that and is going to have to either clean it up or or figure out uh you know a better way to to address the concerns but that just didn’t uh didn’t pass muster today Gary when you uh worked in government was there a lot of stakeholder relations happening between say Christmas Day and New Year’s Day yeah that’s a great question you know my experience between it say December 20th and January 1st the amount of parliamentary business that goes on is a square root of zero and uh you know $117,000 uh I I I did the math that’s $1,625 $16 orange juice uh if you remember the $16 orang got to get over B many years ago but you know I mean just because something is technically within the rules doesn’t mean you should actually claim it and uh I think given that she’s brought attention on herself by not coming to Ottawa very much in fact I’ve noticed that in the past I watch parli probably more than the average person and noticed that both in question period member statements and in committee she’s almost all the time virtual uh you know it it raises more questions and when you have expenditures like this what it does is it again erods trust in Parliament and it may be one of these things that threatens the existence of hybrid Parliament you know Canadians are giving parliamentarians a lot of leeway with a hybrid Parliament and when you see things like this are going to say ah maybe you should all come back to Ottawa and so if parliamentarians want to save hybrid Parliament maybe they should look in their own backyards uh klen how do you see this one I I mean hybrid Parliament you can see its value uh as a thing when it’s needed but its value as by default is I think maybe what Drew attention to Nikki Ashton here yeah I think there’s two things that really stand out to me here uh the first is in all of my years advising Party leaders and ministers I don’t think there was ever one instance where my advice was to answer the question with well the rules said it was fine therefore it’s okay like that’s a it’s really really uh so so you didn’t work for David dingwall is what you’re telling me yeah say that I did David um but or or or Minister former Minister Oda um but uh all of that notwithstanding um I do think it’s important to acknowledge that part of the reason that that price tag is as high as it is is because of the very remote community that represents it’s very expensive to get out of Northern Manitoba to Ottawa or to anywhere else in the country so that’s part of why the price tag looks the way it does um and I think also part of the reason that uh she does choose to to work remotely as a parliamentarian um you know you talk to some of these MPS who represent regions like that um or let’s say Yukon or Northwest Territory even parts of Northern British Columbia when the house Rises on a Friday they sometimes don’t get home because of flight schedules until the next morning they have one day to spend in their community and then on Sunday morning you know they’ve got to go back to the airport and and get back on another plane to be back in Ottawa for Monday so it can be brutal there are absolutely merits to a hybrid Parliament particularly in in so far as it makes parliamentary work accessible to people with young families which uh Nikki Asen is is one of those people so we don’t want to lose that um and I think that just to sort of put a a pin in all of this I’d say it is incumbent upon the people who are in Parliament right now to use hybrid Parliament judiciously and not abuse that process in order to make sure that they’re continues to be trust in that system for the future so Andrew you suggested that they kind of might need to clean this up jug me Singh was asked about this today he he kind of pointed to the existence of the rules as written and it’s compliance with that what do you think the leader of the NDP should do here I mean do they need to insist she’s in the House of Commons more often so this sort of thing is less of an issue or just make her knock off this kind of travel what do you think it’s it’s a good question I know we’re talking a lot about the hybrid Parliament I don’t know that the issue would have been any different if she had been a regular attendee in in the parliament in person I mean the question is is this expense and I appreciate everything carlen saying and body who’s traveled in the north knows how expensive it is and and the distances the question is was this trip on its own justifiable and I’m not sure that the defense that’s been given matches up with that so they are going to have to uh you know I think that the NDP is going to have to figure out uh how to to respond to that to me the the question of whether she normally attends Parliament or doesn’t is a bit of a you know an odd one it doesn’t matter the question would be if she still did would this have been a justifiable expense okay Emily I give you the last word uh two two issues here in terms of How It’s coming across first um most of us long write of our Christmas family vacation as as a as a work expense and so I think that’s where the Proxes regardless of the numbers involved and second once again um if you really do care about official languages and you have a MP who’s responsible for that saying that they’re doing a k back trip to meet with people and they haven’t actually met with people that’s an issue if you care if you care about the file because that means that there isn’t going to be a second back trip for her to get briefed by the people locally about that because that TR is supposedly already done and so beyond the money I insist that is actually an issue and I’m curious to know who she actually met with in my experience usually when an MP meets with a group of stakeholders there’s a picture of it somewhere on a social media somewhere you know it’s announced uh because that’s that’s that’s a part of the game and there’s nothing there on this one so who knows we’ll see if we get the list I want to thank you all uh carlen Varan Gary Keller Andrew Thompson and Emily Nicola thanks so much
NDP MP Niki Ashton billed the House of Commons more than $17,000 for a trip she took to reportedly meet with ‘stakeholders’ over the Christmas holidays — travel that included bringing her husband and kids along, at taxpayers’ expense. CBC’s J.P. Tasker broke the story.
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