PM's tune has changed from the days when he said planes cost $11,000/hour
March 01, 2007
Bruce Cheadle
CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives are paying just a fraction of the cost of partisan and personal junkets aboard Challenger jets.
Documents show that the Prime Minister's Office changed the formula for calculating flight costs after Harper's first partisan journey – a move that slashed subsequent Conservative party repayments.
Neither the original formula nor the reduced charges came close to what Harper himself in opposition had called "$11,000-per-hour Challenger jet flights" by the Liberals.
The invoices, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, show three Challenger flights by Harper in 2006 for which the military billed the PMO.
The first flight was Feb. 10, 2006. Harper's return trip to Halifax from Ottawa for the retirement party of Nova Scotia premier John Hamm was deemed a partisan exercise, and the Conservative party paid.
The invoice from National Defence, which lists Harper and six staff, calculated the trip cost "3.1 flying hours X $2,139.00/hour" for a total of $6,630.90.
On July 26, Harper and six staff flew from Ottawa to Moncton, N.B., for a party event. But the party paid less than half the cost of the first flight for roughly the same flying time.
The price was dictated in an email to National Defence: "Following up on our telephone conversation, it is the wish of the Prime Minister's Office that the Conservative Party of Canada compensates the Crown for the use of the Challenger on July 26," a PMO official wrote.
"Our travel agent ... has advised us what the airfare would have been had the Prime Minister and his staff flown on commercial scheduled flights to Moncton, N.B. Return airfare would have been $483.72."
The email lists the staff onboard and calculates the total owing as $3,144.18.
Commercial airfares were also used to calculate costs when Harper, his son, Ben, and five staff flew to Toronto on Oct. 4 for a Toronto Maple Leafs game.
Sandra Buckler, Harper's director of communications, said the commercial rate was decided upon after discussions with various government departments and the private sector.
Curiously, a flight by Harper to Charlottetown, and Moncton on April 28-29 for a party fundraiser was not reimbursed. Buckler said the trip included a "roundtable meeting with Block Parents" and was therefore government business.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/186974
Nice little loophole Mr. Harper has found. He can go anywhere he wants on our dime as long as he shakes hands with a few people.
March 01, 2007
Bruce Cheadle
CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives are paying just a fraction of the cost of partisan and personal junkets aboard Challenger jets.
Documents show that the Prime Minister's Office changed the formula for calculating flight costs after Harper's first partisan journey – a move that slashed subsequent Conservative party repayments.
Neither the original formula nor the reduced charges came close to what Harper himself in opposition had called "$11,000-per-hour Challenger jet flights" by the Liberals.
The invoices, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, show three Challenger flights by Harper in 2006 for which the military billed the PMO.
The first flight was Feb. 10, 2006. Harper's return trip to Halifax from Ottawa for the retirement party of Nova Scotia premier John Hamm was deemed a partisan exercise, and the Conservative party paid.
The invoice from National Defence, which lists Harper and six staff, calculated the trip cost "3.1 flying hours X $2,139.00/hour" for a total of $6,630.90.
On July 26, Harper and six staff flew from Ottawa to Moncton, N.B., for a party event. But the party paid less than half the cost of the first flight for roughly the same flying time.
The price was dictated in an email to National Defence: "Following up on our telephone conversation, it is the wish of the Prime Minister's Office that the Conservative Party of Canada compensates the Crown for the use of the Challenger on July 26," a PMO official wrote.
"Our travel agent ... has advised us what the airfare would have been had the Prime Minister and his staff flown on commercial scheduled flights to Moncton, N.B. Return airfare would have been $483.72."
The email lists the staff onboard and calculates the total owing as $3,144.18.
Commercial airfares were also used to calculate costs when Harper, his son, Ben, and five staff flew to Toronto on Oct. 4 for a Toronto Maple Leafs game.
Sandra Buckler, Harper's director of communications, said the commercial rate was decided upon after discussions with various government departments and the private sector.
Curiously, a flight by Harper to Charlottetown, and Moncton on April 28-29 for a party fundraiser was not reimbursed. Buckler said the trip included a "roundtable meeting with Block Parents" and was therefore government business.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/186974
Nice little loophole Mr. Harper has found. He can go anywhere he wants on our dime as long as he shakes hands with a few people.