Premier’s office releases Alison Redford’s expenses
Posted Oct 3, 2012 8:18 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Premier Alison Redford has opened the books on her spending since entering public life in 2008.
Her office has released more than 1,200 pages of expense receipts Redford has claimed before and after taking Alberta’s top political job.
It’s part of a promise to become more transparent and fulfill the obligations of a new government policy that forces cabinet ministers and senior officials to make their receipts public.
According to the guidelines, Redford didn’t have to reveal receipts from before October 1st.
A spokesman tells The National Post the premier hopes to serve as an example for many of her colleagues.
The pages reveal first-class trips to China where business class air-fare cost the province $12,500.
Redford has also stayed in some of the world’s best hotels with a two-night stay at the Chateau Frontenac in Québec at $1,700 and a $915 evening at a Washington, D.C. hotel.
There are also empty hotel rooms the province paid for, including a $648 unused room charge at the Hotel Giraffe in New York.
An expensive stay at the Waldorf-Astoria detailed room service charges that included $24 for coffee.
Her office later said that coffee was for four people.
Several late night dinners in Edmonton have cost the province hundreds of dollars in liquor at various “hosting” sessions.
Wildrose Deputy House Leader, Shane Saskiw, applauds the disclosure but calls some of the expenses outrageous.
“I think Albertans can understand now why she appointed the disgraced Alberta Health Services CFO Allaudin Merali to be the controller for the whole province,” he tells 660News. “They’re like two PC’s in a pod.”
Saskiw believes Redford’s office was just trying to get ahead of a freedom of information request that would have embarrassed the premier.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s Derek Fildebrandt agrees, adding Albertans are finally getting a good look at where their dollars are going.
“When the premier travels abroad, we don’t expect her to stay at a Motel 6 or youth hostel,” he says. “But $900 a pop is way beyond the reasonable expectations that Albertans have.”
Fildebrandt says it’s ridiculous that taxpayers haven’t always had access to this information.
But he says her office does deserve credit for finally moving in this direction.
The Alberta director applauds the government’s commitment to proactively releasing all expenses to the public on a quarterly basis.
