Parliamentary associations to spend $1.5 million on flights
According to documents obtained by the Canadian Press, federal MPs and senators will spend nearly $1.5 million on international travel to places like Swaziland, Seychelles, Trinidad, Kenya, India and Indonesia. The figures are contained in draft budgets for the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, just two of a dozen associations to which federal politicians belong. The budgets include seemingly excessive earmarks for flights, even if MPs and senators were to take business class flights. For instance, it includes allocations $10,500 per flight to Jakarta and New Delhi, $5,000 to Vienna, $7,000 to Geneva, and $2,500 to New York. The associations are touted on the Parliamentary website as working to “promote the country’s interests abroad on a continuing basis.”