REGINA – Saskatchewan’s finance minister spent nearly $8,000 on a private jet to attend a chamber of commerce luncheon days after tabling a provincial budget containing tax hikes.
Minister Donna Harpower’s travel expense form posted on the Saskatchewan Party government website shows she took a chartered plane with Good Spirit Air Service on March 25, traveling 400 kilometers from Regina to North Battleford.
The flight cost $7,872.60.
A spokesman for Harpower said she was not available for an interview and provided a statement.
“After curtailing travel for the past two years due to the pandemic, the minister was able to visit a number of regions across the province,” James Parker said in an email.
“For many years, finance ministers have been going around the province to discuss the budget. The tours are a good way to connect with people and provide more insight into how the provincial budget is working for them and their community.”
The luncheon, which Harpower attended, was hosted by the North Battleford Chamber of Commerce at Porta Bella Restaurant.
Two days earlier, she tabled the 2022-23 budget in the Legislature, announcing property and smoker tax increases and a six per cent provincial sales tax on entertainment, gyms, concerts, museums and sporting events.
“This is a flight that could very easily have been replaced by a car journey,” said opposition NDP leader Carla Beck.
“We’re seeing people making changes to their summer plans … because they can’t afford gas, and we’re seeing a minister on one flight spend as much as someone would in four months.”
Beck said politicians need to lead by example, especially when asking residents to relax after a budget that increased people’s cost of living.
“If they don’t understand how hard things are for people — and maybe they don’t if they’re only seeing people from the sky on an $8,000 flight — they need to go out and talk to people,” said Beck, who noted that she has thousands of kilometers by car in recent weeks to meet people across the province.
Premier Scott Moe, Education Minister Dustin Duncan and Rural Health Minister Everett Hindley also ordered a private flight by Good Spirit Air Service from Regina to the north of the province on January 10. The trip was to announce funding and visit four communities.
That flight cost nearly $16,000, with each of the three costing $5,301.86. Moe, Duncan and Hindley could not be reached for comment.
“It is standard practice to share costs and coordinate charter flights where possible to reduce air transport costs,” government spokesman Matthew Glover said in a statement.
He said driving is the main mode of travel in the province for ministers, but charter flights are used periodically for longer distances or when it affects other commitments.
Since the government shut down its airline, Executive Air, in 2017, it has spent about $200,000 to $400,000 a year for cabinet members to travel in and out of the province, Glover said.
He said that was far less than the $4 million spent on Executive Air in 2006-07 by the NDP government at the time.
Since March, the Saskatchewan NDP has been calling on the government to offer financial relief to residents as they deal with rising fuel costs, inflation and taxes.
The New Democrats have asked the government to temporarily suspend fuel tax collections in the province, like Alberta, and raise royalty rates for natural resource companies that make windfall profits.
Moe said no decision on such relief has been made because the province has a deficit of nearly $500 million to pay.
He said if the budget is balanced sooner than expected and there is a surplus of natural resource revenue, his government will look for ways to return dollars to residents in a way that benefits everyone.
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