Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the interests of transparency and accountability for the expense of major public dollars, I will ask the Deputy Premier questions on the significant cost of travel by elected officials and public servants.
Travel by Ministers alone in 2009-2010, in the first three months of 2012 totalled three-quarters of a million dollars. Quarterly reports are publicly available, which document the travel costs of Ministers, but we know that committee members also travel with Ministers. Whether these costs come from ministerial or committee budgets is all the same to the taxpayer. They are expressing concerns about travel costs.
What are the Minister’s views on widening the reporting parameters to include the cost for all elected Members travelling with Ministers, in the interest of transparency? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Deputy Premier, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Member is referring to 2009-10 is the last government’s budget. At the same time, the transparency and accountability is our foremost priority for this government. We do table those documents as well for the general public to be aware of what our expenditures are as Cabinet Ministers, the Premier and also Regular Members that do tag along to let’s say various meetings that happen in other parts or jurisdictions. We do invite them. They are part of the discussion that we have at the territorial level as well. We will continue to press that issue, where transparency is a first priority and also accountability. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the data I quoted was through early parts of this fiscal year. I certainly don’t see those figures. I only see figures for the Ministers’ travel, but I stand to be corrected. I would appreciate if the Minister could confirm that, by doing a little bit of research. The travel figures are a good start, but only report the expenses incurred by the Minister.
We know Ministers seldom travel alone. They are accompanied by their executive assistants, often by one or many department officials who wouldn’t normally be travelling without the Minister. Their costs should be included.
Will the Deputy Premier take action to begin including not only the Ministers’ costs, but the travel costs of all support workers travelling with the Minister? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, this particular area that we table those documents, Ministerial travel, we do have staff travel as well, deputies or EAs that are required at these meetings. We can obviously discuss that further with the standing committee and also Caucus, because the Member is referring to MLAs’ expenditures as well. We need to discuss that with the standing committee, maybe Caucus. We are open as a government, as the Executive, to produce any document that is required for the general public if that is the wish of the Regular Members. We are more than willing to work with that. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Deputy Premier’s remarks there. They are right on. I appreciate that commitment. I am, indeed, interested in all MLAs’ travel but, once again, many things are left out frequently. For example, when the Minister travels, there are events hosted by the Minister and also, of course, when that happens, there are consultants there to help arrange those and so on.
Will the Premier commit to also looking at including all of those costs so that when we report Ministerial travel costs, we really do have the full costs? I ask this because constituents and the public are expressing concerns about travel costs, given all of our demands on our resources these days. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, yes, definitely we are open to those ideas. We will be sharing that with the standing committee and also Caucus. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
