30 MPs accepted $230K in free travel last year, mostly for trips to Taiwan

CBC

3 days ago

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Members of Parliament accepted more than $230,000 in flights, hotels and gifts from foreign governments, advocacy groups and private companies last year according to an annual report from the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner.
Konrad von Finckenstein's report on the sponsored travel accepted by MPs for 2024 reveals that 30 MPs accepted trips to locations around the world including Colombia, the Ivory Coast, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, France and Germany.
But more than half of the $230,000 in travel accepted by federal legislators was paid for by Taiwan, which spent just over $126,000 bringing MPs to their country.
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) separately paid just over $11,000 to bring Bloc Québécois MP Yves Perron to Taiwan, and almost $1,400 to bring former independent MP Kevin Vuong to that country.
IPAC does not accept money from governments. Instead it relies on donations from private foundations and organizations that are onside with IPAC's efforts to counter the global influence of the Chinese Communist Party.
While the standing orders of the House of Commons prohibit MPs from accepting gifts or benefits that could influence their activities as federal legislators, an exception is made when it comes to travel.
The standing orders say that a member can accept sponsored travel over $200 when the resulting trip relates to their job, providing they publicly disclose the value of the trip within 60 days of returning home.
The $230,000 total for 2024 marks a sharp decline from 2023 when MPs accepted more than $840,000 in sponsored travel.
In total the 30 MPs accepted $1,796 in gifts, $10,417 in "other" travel benefits, $41,144 in accommodations and $177,369 in travel costs.
The cost of travel to Taiwan
Of the 38 trips taken by the 30 MPs on Finckenstein's list, the single most expensive journey was a six-day trip to Taiwan taken last May by Liberal MP Judy Sgro. That trip cost Taiwan's taxpayers a total of $17,172.
Sgro accepted the most travel of any MP in 2024. Including Taiwan, and her two trips to Paris, Sgro accepted more than $24,000 in sponsored travel.
The 15 trips to Taiwan make up a disproportionately large share of the overall cost of sponsored trips because of the high cost of airfares.
The value of sponsored airfares to Taiwan's capital, Taipei, for example, range in price from just under $6,000 to just over $15,000. The only exception to that was Vuong's $200 transportation costs to Taipei.
Other notable trips include former Liberal MP Omar Alghabra's trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to attend a clean energy conference. That trip cost just over $9,000 and was paid for by Ontario Tech University.
Liberal MP James Maloney accepted an $8,608 trip to Ukraine sponsored by the Yalta European Strategy, an annual conference held in Ukraine. The conference also paid $6,173 to bring over Liberal MP Yvan Baker.
Former Liberal MP Chandra Arya, who was dropped as the candidate in the Ottawa riding of Nepean days before the election call, accepted a $5,905 government-sponsored trip to Bangladesh and a $5,742 trip to Côte d'Ivoire paid for by the World Bank.