News Release: New records show province must cut travel costs to save money
VANCOUVER, B.C.: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the B.C. government to cut travel spending after obtaining travel expenses for the COP28 conference in Dubai.
“B.C. politicians and bureaucrats are spending too much on travel and they need to shrink those expenses,” said Carson Binda, B.C. Director for the CTF. “Too many trips are entirely unnecessary and too many trips are too expensive.
“The B.C. government needs to travel less and be more careful when it does need to take trips.”
Climate Action Secretariat bureaucrat Jeremy Hewitt billed taxpayers 15,510 Emirati Dirham (nearly $1,000 CAD per night) for a hotel room while he attended the COP28 conference in Dubai from Dec. 1 to 6, 2023. He received reimbursement for $1,900 worth of per diem and expenses, including $270 per day for meals. Hewitt also billed taxpayers $10,050 for flights to and from Dubai.
For context, the five-star Hilton Dubai Palm Jumeirah is currently listing rooms for $396 per night.
Hewitt’s big travel bills come after numerous other examples of expensive travel at the B.C. government:
- Bureaucrats raked up six-figure bills on helicopter travel between Vancouver and Victoria
- Finance Minister Brenda Bailey billed taxpayers $6,600 in limo-service expenses during a four-day junket to Boston
- The premier’s former chief of staff expensed taxpayers for more than $12,000 worth of helicopter trips over the course of eight months.
“The B.C. government is borrowing billions of dollars a year so it can’t afford to spend more than necessary to fly all over the world,” Binda said. “It’s time for the province to overhaul its travel priorities and cut the budget.”
Credit rating agency S&P Global warned that the “province’s commitment to fiscal discipline and stability has wavered in recent years,” during the last round of credit rating downgrades.
Interest charges on British Columbia’s public debt currently costs taxpayers more than $100 million per week. It will cost about $150 million per week by 2027, according to government forecasts.