Manitoba premier says he will look at revealing more travel expenses
The Manitoba government will look at proactively releasing more information about its out-of-province travel expenses, Premier Wab Kinew said Friday.
It's a move that would bring Manitoba in line with the federal government and some other provinces.
Currently, the government posts travel expenses of the premier and other cabinet ministers on its website. But unlike the federal government and provinces such as Saskatchewan and Alberta, Manitoba does not post the expenses of senior staff or bureaucrats that accompany a minister.
The government recently posted a total of $6,649 dollars for a trip to a United Nations conference in March by Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine.
Documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the province's freedom of information law show three other people accompanied the minister -- Fontaine's director of ministerial affairs and two members of Gender Equity Manitoba, a branch of the Families department -- for a total of $23,105.
Getting information through freedom of information can be cumbersome when ministers or staff from different departments travel, as requests must be filed with each department. Getting a response to a request can take months.
Kinew, who became premier a year ago, said he was surprised by what he called an "ad hoc" system of disclosing expenses. He said he will look at including staff and bureaucrat travel expenses.
"We are standardizing things and we are going to ensure that there is a regular, systematic approach to delivering on these disclosures," Kinew said.
"And so I think that ... (we'll) have a discussion about what that would mean potentially and what's the art of the possible there."
Kinew's office recently posted $1,684 in expenses for a March trip to Toronto, which included a speech to the Economic Club of Canada and attendance at an international mining conference. The listing doesn't include expenses of senior political staff who accompanied the premier.
In Saskatchewan, recent online travel disclosures include a trip to India for Premier Scott Moe over six days in February. It lists the names of an adviser and a deputy minister who went along, for a total of $37,397. It also includes, unlike Manitoba, a detailed list of the trip's objectives and people the premier met with.
The federal government lists ministerial travel expenses and has a separate searchable database for senior officials including minister's press secretaries.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2024
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Ottawa has sold its stake in Air Canada: sources
Two senior federal government sources have confirmed to CTV News that the federal government has sold its stake in Air Canada. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, the government purchased a six per cent stake in the airline for $500 million as part of a bailout package.
Premiers disagree on whether Canada should cut off energy supply to U.S. if Trump moves ahead with tariffs
Some of Canada's premiers appeared to disagree with Ontario Premier Doug Ford on his approach to retaliatory measures, less than a day after he threatened to cut off the province's energy supply to the U.S. if president-elect Donald Trump follows through on his threat of punishing tariffs.
She took a DNA test for fun. Police used it to charge her grandmother with murder in a cold case
According to court documents, detectives reopened the cold case in 2017 and then worked with a forensics company to extract DNA from Baby Garnet's partial femur, before sending the results to Identifinders International.
BREAKING Travis Vader, killer of Lyle and Marie McCann, denied day parole
The man who killed an Alberta couple in 2010 has been denied day parole.
McDonald's employee who called 911 in CEO's shooting is eligible for reward, but it will take time
More than 400 tips were called into the New York Police Department's Crime Stoppers tip line during the five-day search for a masked gunman who ambushed and fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week.
Man who set fires inside Calgary's municipal building lost testicle during arrest: ASIRT
Two Calgary police officers have been cleared of any wrongdoing in an incident that saw a suspect lose a testicle after being shot with an anti-riot weapon.
Country star Morgan Wallen sentenced in chair-throwing case
Country music star Morgan Wallen on Thursday pleaded guilty to two misdemeanour counts of reckless endangerment for throwing a chair from the rooftop of a six-storey bar in Nashville and nearly hitting two police officers with it.
Weather warnings for hazardous conditions in parts of Canada
Canadians experienced contrasting weather on Thursday, from warmer temperatures in the Maritimes to extreme cold in parts of Ontario, the Prairies and the North.
3 men say in lawsuits that Sean 'Diddy' Combs drugged and sexually assaulted them
Three men sued Sean 'Diddy' Combs in New York on Thursday, claiming the hip-hop mogul drugged and raped them.