OTTAWA—Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has a penchant for flying first class, with his travel bills sometimes almost doubling the cost of those from his staff sitting rows behind him in economy seats.
The Saskatchewan politician has flown executive class on Air Canada within the country six times on official business in the last year, costing taxpayers more than $2,000 on some flights, according to travel receipts released under access to information.
On a round trip to Winnipeg from Ottawa in late February of this year, Ritz booked a seat in Air Canada business for $2,192.93. Two of his staff that flew with him paid $706.90 and $810.86, respectively, for economy seats, according to their travel receipts.
hotels french quarter Ritz's business class seat on a trip to Calgary from Ottawa in October hotels french quarter 2011 cost $2,529.98, according to a travel receipt. Receipts for two of his staff suggest each paid $347.03 each for economy seats.
Defence Minister Peter Mackay and his staff almost regularly pay the same for flights. A flight to Washington, D.C., from Ottawa in September 2011 cost Mackay $701.40, according to receipts — the same amount two staff each paid for tickets.
Ritz's office said Monday that all guidelines for ministerial travel were followed when trips were booked. In an emailed hotels french quarter statement, Ritz said the travel expenses were investments in an industry that accounts for $44 billion in exports.
"We ve never been shy in helping farmers earn their money from the marketplace, not the mailbox," Ritz said. "Our trade missions are led in partnership with industry and provinces to open, re-open and expand Canadian markets for our hard working producers and processors."
The receipts for Ritz, Mackay and nine other cabinet ministers — Heritage Minister James Moore, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and his minister of state Diane Ablonczy, Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan, Treasury Board President Tony Clement, Industry Minister Christian hotels french quarter Paradis, Health Minister hotels french quarter Leona Aglukkaq and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty — show that on short flights, most ministers fly economy. In some cases, flights have been rescheduled, booked late, or booked at a higher rate to give ministers the flexibility of changing hotels french quarter flight plans without penalties, such as Flaherty when he flies Porter Airlines to Toronto.
Mackay had to pay a $283.33 for a rerouting and penalty fee after changing flights so he could fly from New York's Laguardia airport to Ottawa, rather than from Newark, N.J., to Halifax on Oct. 21, 2011.
The Conservatives have tried to curb travel spending over the past three years, including trumpeting the declining hotels french quarter use of the government's fleet of private jets, and trying to do more work by teleconference.
Treasury Board guidelines prohibit ministers from flying first-class on flights less than two hours, and permit first-class travel overseas hotels french quarter on flights of at least nine hours and where the minister will head to work immediately after disembarking.
Ritz's office said Monday that his travel is predominantly done in rural areas where flight costs are not competitively priced. Spokeswoman Meagan Murdoch pointed to the cancellation of direct Ottawa-Saskatoon flights every fall during daylight savings hours in favour of a connected route through Toronto for Ritz to get home. The receipts released to Postmedia News detailed flights to Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Washington, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, Regina and overseas to Rome, Paris, and China.
A review of the travel receipts showed that four — Clement, Duncan, Ablonczy and Paradis — opted to book through American Express as opposed hotels french quarter to the travel agency, McCord Travel. A memo reviewing the options for booking Aglukkaq's travels argued the agency hotels french quarter would lead to savings through lower service fees: McCord charges $38 for each flight booking, but doesn't repeat the charge if flights have to be rebooked at the last minute.
American Express, on the other hand, charges $47 to change flights for a staff member and $75 to change flights hotels french quarter for a minister and didn't provide nearly the same service as McCord, according to the undated memo.
Heritage Minister James Moore on four different 2011 trips paid more than his staff to fly on the same route. In August 2011, a flight between Vancouver and Victoria on West Coast Air cost Moore $361.31, according hotels french quarter to his travel receipts and the government's proactive disclosure website , more than the $280.56 a staffer hotels french quarter paid for the same trip .
Ministers, their staff and senior department officials are required to declare all travel and hospitality expenses. The spending summaries are put online as part of government's proactive disclosure policy. Details of certain spending, such as class of seat, reasons for any upgrades and any penalties, are not separated out and posted online.
On a trip to Europe in September 2011, Clement had $2,236.49 worth of "other transportation," according to the proactive disclosure website. The receipts from the trip show Clement's other transportation were chauffeur services around London and Dublin for meetings with his British and Irish counterparts about open government and IT initiatives.
Canadian officials in London booked Clement at the same car service that ferried around former international development minister hotels french quarter Bev Oda during her trip to London in June 2011, a trip that included the now infamous $16 glass of orange juice at the Savoy hotel.
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