NDP MP who billed taxpayers $17,000 for Christmas travel pays some of it back

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A New Democrat MP whose Christmastime travels with her family cost Canadian taxpayers more than $17,000 has paid back some of the money.

The CBC reported earlier this month that Niki Ashton, the member of Parliament for Churchill-Keewatinook Aski in northern Manitoba, billed taxpayers a total of $17,641.12 — $13,619.90 for airfare and other transportation; $2,508.39 for accommodations; and $1,512.83 for meals and other incidentals, according to House of Commons records — for a trip from Thompson, Man., to Ottawa, then to Quebec City, then Montreal, and back to Ottawa before returning to Thompson.

The trip lasted from Dec. 21 — five days after the House of Commons had risen for its Christmas break — until early in the new year. Ashton’s husband, Bruce Moncur, and their two children joined her on her travels.

But in a media statement released Monday and shared with the National Post, Ashton said she repaid a portion of the charges incurred.

“I believe in accountability and setting the record straight,” she said. “I went to Ottawa to deal with an urgent bedbug situation in my building and apartment following spraying on December 20th — this expense was approved by the House of Commons. I then met separately with stakeholders in Quebec.

Ashton has refused to name the stakeholders, citing privacy issues. In a statement to the National Post, Alana Cahill, the NDP’s director of communications, said: “During her trip to Quebec City, Niki Ashton met with people working in the cultural sector of the Quebec Black community, people involved in Fair Vote Quebec, an author, and people involved in the union movement. These discussions focused on a variety of topics like official languages, promotion of culture, electoral reform, and fair taxation.”

Cahill added that Ashton also paid for expenses incurred on statutory holidays while in Quebec, adding: “The House of Commons sets rules for MPs’ travel. Ashton submitted her claims and was reimbursed.”

Ashton told the news site Canada’s National Observer that she repaid the Quebec portion of her expenses — four nights’ accommodation and meals, plus a vehicle rental, for a total of approximately $2,900. But she noted that she needed her husband’s help in dealing with the bed bug infestation in Ottawa, which was why he joined her on that portion of the trip.

Ashton said in her statement: “As a result of media reports around these travel claims, my family and I have been subjected to death threats, harassment, and abuse.” 

She further told Canada’s National Observer that this included threats on social media photos of her children and on the social media accounts of her husband, who ran for the NDP as a nomination candidate in 2014 but is now working as a teacher and Afghanistan veterans’ advocate.

“The story … pulled from his social media, therefore framing him as a target and unduly politicizing him, furthering this misleading narrative,” she said.

In her statement, she added: “The discourse around this House of Commons-approved travel has become a distraction to the important work New Democrats are doing for Canadians.”

Last year, an analysis of expenses by CTV News found that members of Parliament spent more than $14.6 million of taxpayers’ money on travel in the first half of 2023, a roughly 10 per cent increase over the previous six months.

It noted that, aside from party leaders, Ashton was the second-highest spender after Bloc Québécois MP Marilène Gill, racking up $131,527.53 in travel costs over six months.

The analysis also found that, by party, the NDP had the highest per-member travel costs at nearly $60,000, which was $16,000 above the national average

However, Ashton has noted that the airline Calm Air has a monopoly on flights in the north of Manitoba and that its prices are “exorbitantly expensive.”

“When it’s only one airline, you are completely beholden to their terms,” she told Canada’s National Observer. “The bottom line is we need competition, and we need the federal government to step up and make that clear to airlines in regions like ours.”

Last month, Competition Bureau Canada announced it would undertake a study of competition in the nation’s airline industry, noting: “Since the Canadian population is spread out over vast distances, other modes of transportation may not be feasible replacements for air travel. More competition in the industry will mean lower prices, better services, and improved productivity.”

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