Sask. reports over $200,000 worth of ministerial travel in past 6 months, defends need for trade missions

Premier Scott Moe and his team of officials had the largest travel bill for the most recent six month reporting period – earning scorn from the Official Opposition.

Included in the expenses were highly publicized trade missions to Dubai and India. Those two were the most expensive at just over $37,000 for India and $32,000 for Dubai.

The NDP question the necessity and the cost.

“This is a government that is playing pretty fast and loose when it comes to taxpayer dollars,” Aleana Young NDP MLA.

Dubai trip expenses do not include the cost of the trade show, display space and advertising.

“We have a premier who is aggressively unapologetic in having spent a million dollars for the single most expensive trip in the history of the province,” Young added.

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Other ministers with travel expenses exceeding $10,000 include Jeremy Harrison, Jim Reiter, Dustin Duncan and Lori Carr.

The totals include travel costs for officials who accompanied them.

“We see people who can’t afford the basics, whether it’s groceries, whether it’s putting gas in their tank and you know meanwhile we see a government that is unapologetically and lacking in transparency spending taxpayer dollars kind of willy-nilly.”

In total, the Premier and eight cabinet ministers made 17 out of province trips at a combined cost of just over $219,000.

The government did not have a cabinet minister available to address the expenses.

However, Executive Council did offer a response Tuesday evening – outlining the vital importance of maintaining trading relationships in a province that exports "70 per cent of everything it produces."

“In Saskatchewan one in three jobs is tied to exports. In 2023, Saskatchewan exported over $49 billion worth of goods to 163 countries,” the statement read. “This is the second-highest year for total exports in provincial history.”

In the explanation, the province pointed to its network of trade offices located in Mexico, the UK, Germany, the UAE, India, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, and China. It also referred to its appearance at COP28.

“The United Arab Emirates is also an incredibly important emerging market for Saskatchewan, we are the only Canadian province with a trade office in Dubai,” the statement read.

“Saskatchewan is Canada's largest agri-food exporter to the UAE. In 2023, exports to the Middle East and North Africa, supported by Saskatchewan’s Dubai office, were worth more than $1 billion dollars.”

Ending off, the province highlighted its trade relationship to India, saying that 25 per cent of Canadian trade to the subcontinent originates from Saskatchewan.

“It’s a relationship worth more than a billion dollars annually and is growing rapidly,” the statement read. “In India, Saskatchewan exports help ensure food security for more than 1.4 billion people.”