Sask. government's out-of-province travel expenses on pace to surpass 2022
CBC
Saskatchewan's premier and cabinet are on pace to spend more on out-of-province travel than in years past.
The government recently posted its travel expenses for MLAs for the period of Oct. 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023.
In the first three months of 2023, the government spent more than $214,000 on out-of-province travel.
Premier Scott Moe and cabinet ministers have taken 17 trips as of March 31 — 10 of which were in Canada and four to the U.S. The other three trips were overseas.
All three overseas missions happened in February.
The government posts travel expenses twice per year, so out-of-province costs for trips taken since April 1 are not posted.
Harrison, the minister of trade and export development, recently travelled to Germany. Moe and Minister of Education Dustin Duncan were in Washington, D.C., in April.
The pandemic brought travel to a halt in 2020 and for most of 2021. In 2019, the government spent more than $460,000 on out-of-province ministerial travel. Government records show the cabinet and premier spent slightly more than $260,000 on travel in 2017-18.
The government's expense report now includes the total costs for travel from October 2022 to the end of the year.
In 2022, total out-of-province travel spending was $501,265. From Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, 2022, total travel expenses were $359,874. The total for the last three months of 2022 was $141,391.
The most expensive trips were:
Moe has defended his government's travel as an important relationship-building exercise and an opportunity to pitch Saskatchewan as a place for trade and investment both throughout North America and overseas.
"International engagement efforts are how Saskatchewan grows its exports, strengthens trade relationships and continues to build on partnerships. This not only creates more opportunities for the province abroad but in turn creates more jobs and economic prosperity at home," the government of Saskatchewan said in a statement to CBC.
The government said its missions are "crucial for connecting Saskatchewan companies with new markets, which is an important piece to ensuring the province's economy can continue to thrive."
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