As Premier Christy Clark travels around Asia for the second time since taking over B.C.’s top job last February, she is facing criticism that her travel patterns are too lavish.

The Globe and Mail had a piece last week that outlined her staff’s efforts to get her hotel room stocked with fresh flowers, a fresh fruit basket, a bottle of chardonnay white wine and still and sparkling water.

From the article, which relied on emails obtained by the Globe under the Freedom of Information Act:

“We were hoping to upgrade our Premier … if at all possible,” an events and logistics officer with the B.C. government said in an e-mail to an undisclosed hotel in Chandigarh, India. “For the Premier’s room, could we have the following items placed in her room? Fresh flowers, fresh fruit basket, bottle of wine – chardonnay, and still and sparking water,” the official stated.

“Any items not complimentary will be paid for on our house account,” the official said.

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“It is our regular procedure to have rooms at one set rate and request that four guests receive complementary upgrades,” another events and logistics officer said in an e-mail, referring to accommodations in Bangalore, India. “This would be for the Premier, minister [of jobs, tourism and innovation], deputy minister and principal secretary to the Premier.”

Now, it’s not exactly pork barreling on the level of Bev Oda’s $16 glass of orange juice or Peter MacKay staying at uber-fancy hotels, but it reinforces the perception that politicians travel too lavishly on the taxpayer dime.

What really concerns me is that provincial government staff are fishing for room upgrades for the principal secretary—essentially the No. 2 political appointee in B.C. Why? And if they didn’t get an upgrade, did taxpayers pay more for a bump-up?

That’s very troubling.

This whole situation reinforces why we at the CTF have been fighting so long and hard for full disclosure on all MLA expenses.

Travel and expense accounts are the only spending a politician does in isolation, without the need for a vote or political support. That’s why increased transparency and full accountability are necessary.