John Risley downplays concerns about flying Stephenville town councillors on his private jet

The billionaire businessman pushing to build a massive wind farm and hydrogen project on Newfoundland's west coast is defending the decision to fly members of Stephenville's town council on his private jet.

"Do I think it's a big story? No, I don't. I had empty seats on the airplane. The airplane was flying back with those empty seats. Doesn't cost me one extra cent to put a bum in that seat," John Risley said in an interview this week with Radio-Canada.

"We've got a business relationship with the town, as you know, signed an agreement with them, and we were delighted to offer them those empty seats."

Risley was reacting to a CBC Investigates story that revealed details of the flight.

Earlier this fall, three members of Stephenville town council and the town manager flew back from a conference in Europe on a private jet owned by Risley.

The company Risley chairs, World Energy GH2, wants to build wind farms and produce green hydrogen in the Stephenville-Port au Port area.

So was the Hamburg flight was a one-off? Has Risley offered politicians flights on his jet before?

"No, I don't. Generally speaking, politicians would not accept an offer from me to fly on my airplane and I generally wouldn't make it," Risley said.

"I don't see these folks as being sort of politicians in the general sense of things. These are people who are giving their time to their community. These positions are largely volunteer in nature."

Political scientist Russell Williams said he appreciates Risley's honesty in making those comments, but indicated public officials are supposed to have better ethical judgment.

"A mayor, council members, a senior public servant in the municipality, they are not people that should be taking rides on that plane," said Williams, an associate professor at Memorial University in St. John's.

"They're not volunteers, they have serious responsibilities in this case, and we all know that Mr. Risley is trying to do business with Stephenville on a number of files. So no, they shouldn't be on his plane."

According to Williams, the issue goes beyond optics.

"I would go a step further and actually say that it's an explicit conflict of interest and probably violates the existing legislation for those officials," he said.