Redford going to Olympics on taxpayers’ dime
Posted Jul 26, 2012 7:38 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Alberta taxpayers will be coughing up nearly $84,000 for a trip to the Olympics.
Premier Alison Redford and two ministers are heading to London next week for six days to promote the province.
Just last month, the premier was in China promoting Alberta at a cost of more than $43,000.
Scott Hennig of The Canadian Taxpayers Federation tells The Calgary Sun spending on ministerial junkets is at more than $238,000 and the year is only half over.
660News spoke to Calgarians Thursday morning about the latest trip and whether or not they see any benefit to Redford going to London; it seems for the most part, they do.
Many said there’s no better time to grab the captive attention of an audience in one place than at the Olympics.
In fact, the term “drop in the bucket” was used several times.
“It’s probably reality for today’s times, that’s how much it costs and if it benefits Alberta, why not?” said one man at the Anderson LRT station.
“They’re there to get their face time and see all the other diplomats and I guess that’s okay,” said another woman.
There were one or two people who found the price tag hard to swallow; one woman from Scotland said it doesn’t cost her $83,000 to get home and suggests the premier try flying economy class.
