Minister Donna Harpauer’s travel expense form, posted on the Saskatchewan Party government’s website, shows she took a chartered plane with Good Spirit Air Service on March 25, travelling 400 kilometres from Regina to North Battleford.A spokesman for Harpauer said she was unavailable for an interview and provided a statement.
The luncheon Harpauer attended was hosted by the North Battleford Chamber of Commerce at Porta Bella Restaurant. “We see people making changes to their summer plans … because they can’t afford gas, and we see one minister with one flight spending enough that someone would make in four months.” “It’s unbelievable that at a time when workers are finding themselves unable to put food on the table, or to fill their cars with gas just to be able to get to work, the Saskatchewan Party has no issue booking private jets and sending Saskatchewan people the bill,” Johb said Monday in a statement.
“It is standard practice to cost-share and co-ordinate charter flights, where possible, in order to reduce air travel costs,” government spokesperson Mathew Glover said in a statement. He said that’s much less than the $4 million spent on Executive Air in 2006-07 by the NDP government at the time.