There were more provincial politicians in the air last year than Canada geese! That's according to the flight logs for government owned aircraft and private charters that were obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) under the Freedom of Information Act.

The CTF's analysis revealed that 19 Cabinet Ministers flew 1,431 times on government owned aircraft and private charters last year - an average of 28 flights per week or 75 flights per Minister for the year.

Other aircraft passengers included ministerial aides, bureaucrats, judges, Crown corporation employees, and a handful of MLAs. In total, 3,276 flights were taken in the government tab in the year 2000, almost all within Saskatchewan. Obviously the taxpayer's planes are being very heavily used, and possibly misused from time to time.

Environment Minister Buckley Belanger wins the Frequent Flyer award for flying the most (burning all that airplane fuel can't be good for the environment, can it ). Belanger flew 131 times in 2000, or once every three days on average. He was followed closely by Ministers Pat Atkinson, former Premier Roy Romanow, Janice MacKinnon, Jack Hillson, and Judy Junor, all of whom flew more than 100 times last year.

It appears some Cabinet Ministers may have been treating the government airplanes like their own family taxi service. There were 61 flights by family members of Cabinet Ministers last year. Family members are permitted to fly free on a stand-by basis, so long as the plane isn't full and isn't required to make an extra stop. But occasionally the only people on the plane are the Minister and their family members, making it tough to know if these are legitimate trips or if the Ministers are using the planes like the family mini-van.

Again, Environment Minister Buckley Belanger wins top honors for recording 17 family flights in 2000. Other top family flyers included Keith Goulet (11 flights), Roy Romanow (11 flights), and Maynard Sonntag (6 flights). Most of these flights were in Saskatchewan, but the wives of Mr. Belanger and Mr. Lautermilch did accompany their jusbands on a trip to Quebec.

Minister Belanger was also the "Leader of the Skies" for using the government airplanes more than any other candidate during the NDP leadership race late last year and in January 2001. He registered 24 flights during his 71 days on the campaign trial.

The big question here, of course, is whether the leadership candidates were using the taxpayers' airplanes for their leadership business. The flight logs suggest that some leadership candidate were shuttling to at least some party events at taxpayer expense during one particular stretch of the campaign early last December.

The bottom-line is that although Saskatchewan isn't getting any bigger, our politicians, their families, and our bureaucrats are flying a lot more than they used to, and its costing taxpayers. According to information previously released by the CTF, the cost of operating the provincial government's fleet of aircraft is expected to be about $1.7 million in 2000-01, 129% higher than five years ago. The reason: the total number miles flown is also on course to be 61% higher than 1996-97.

The only surprise is that some politicians haven't sprouted wings by now.