https://postmedialeaderpost2.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/249523065-weyburn05291911-w.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=840&h=630&crop=1
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, right, shakes hands with Alberta Premier Jason Kenney during the Saskatchewan Oil & Gas Show held at the Crescent Pointe Centre in Weyburn.BRANDON HARDER / Regina Leader-Post

Mandryk: Sask. Party gov't must account for Moe travel, less disclosure

Moe, cabinet minsters and staff may be forgetting they work for us and — as their bosses and employers — we have a right to accountability.

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A government shows signs it’s aging when it makes accountability more difficult and/or when it seems to care less about its personal spending.

Judging by the results of a basic NDP Opposition freedom of information (FOI) request for Premier Scott Moe’s travel expenses, this is now a problem for the Saskatchewan Party government. It would be well advised to take stock.

Sure, oppositions will attempt to spin matters in their own favour, but disclosing travel costs is Government Accountability 101.

That the NDP has been hit with a $1,690 FOI bill — largely due to the cost of 1,000 pages of photocopying at 15 cents a page — is as telling as it is ludicrous.

For starters, why, in this online age when information is transferred electronically, does releasing this information require 1,000 pages at 15 cents a page for photocopying? If this is truly a problem, rules desperately need to be updated.

Unfortunately, the game that gets played here is that the more costly and/or difficult government can make scrutiny, the less scrutiny it faces.

It’s absolutely perverse for taxpayers to be paying bureaucrats to clog up the release of such information. Funny, though. Do you remember the last time you heard the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) demand this red tape be cut, or the government congratulating them for doing so? Me neither.

Travel expenses are something we all must keep tabs on if we expect to get reimbursed. It’s also something we all have to justify to our bosses. Other public servants have to, and there have even been occasions when people have been fired or reprimanded for either falsifying expense claims or taking unnecessary trips.

Moe, cabinet minsters and staff may be forgetting they work for us and — as their bosses and employers — we have a right to accountability.

As the Saskatchewan NDP rightly noted, it was simply asking for basic information that’s readily available in virtually every other province. In its news release, the NDP highlighted that “Alberta provides ministerial office expenses and international travel expenses. British Columbia provides ministerial and Deputy Ministers’ expenses including itemized receipts. Manitoba provides quarterly expense reports for ministerial travel and annual reports of ministerial office expenses … Ontario discloses travel, hotel accommodation, meal, and hospitality expenses for each MPP.”

Weirdly, lower ministerial travel costs have been a point of pride with the Sask. Party government. Even while justifying the lack of disclosure, the premier’s press secretary Jim Billington — whose job requires him to frequently accompany Moe on his travels — pointed out the reduction in travel expenses over the past NDP administration.

There absolutely were some high-flying NDP cabinet ministers, and credit goes to the Sask. Party for dispensing with “Executive Air,” which seemed to run up cabinet travel costs.

That said, neither Billington nor his Sask. Party government has a reasonable explanation for the NDP’s concerns that “Ministerial travel in the last fiscal year has increased 53 per cent year-over-year to a total of  $321,248″ and that “Scott Moe’s travel bill was $84,868, a nearly 86 per cent increase from the $45,628 then-Premier (Brad) Wall spent in his last full year in office.”

Moe, Trade and Export Development Minister Jeremy Harrison and others have significantly increased their national and international travel. We can debate whether that’s justifiable, but any such debate and/or comparison with past administrations begins with knowing precisely what’s being spent on travel. And with the prospects of new international trade offices, more monitoring of international travel is needed.

Instead, the NDP news release noted “no detailed information is publicly available on expenses for the Premier and cabinet inside the province.” This is alarming because we also know Moe is more frequently using private in-province commercial flights since the demise of Executive Air — at least $12,000 worth in this last fiscal year, according to a report on Thursday by Stephanie Taylor of The Canadian Press.

There is no reason why such basic ministerial travel information shouldn’t be easily available. One can only guess why it isn’t.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post.