AS STUDENTS STRUGGLE TO MAKE ENDS MEET, SCOTT MOE’S ADVANCED EDUCATION MINISTER SPENT $42,000 ON FLIGHTS FOR TAXPAYER-FUNDED TRIP TO ASIA

Caviar? Champagne? Hot Towels? — Beck’s Team Demands Full Accounting For Massive Airfare Bill Racked Up By Minister Ken Cheveldayoff
PRINCE ALBERT – Carla Beck's team is demanding answers from Scott Moe’s Advanced Education Minister Ken Cheveldayoff after newly released travel expenses show taxpayers were billed more than $52,600 for a nine-day trip he took in February to the Philippines and Thailand earlier this year, including nearly $42,000 on airfare alone.

“The Minister seems to be living a first-class life while his own constituents cancel summer vacations and stack on debt just to put food on the kitchen table,” said Matt Love, Saskatchewan NDP Caucus Chair. “We deserve to know why this trip cost so much money. Did the Minister dine on caviar and champagne on the taxpayer dime at 30,000 feet?”

The airfare alone for the February trip works out to more than $10,000 each for Cheveldayoff, his chief of staff and two officials. Raising even more questions is the fact that fellow Sask. Party ministers — whose travel expense disclosures were also posted online — appear to have to have made similar treks on trade missions to Asia and South America at a far more reasonable cost.

Research undertaken by Beck’s team on Monday indicates Cheveldayoff’s airline bills are consistent with business class tickets. Attempts were made to book flights to the same locations — Bangkok and Manila — approximately two months from now on a weekend in September. Reasonable flights booked in economy class came out to $3,109 per person, a third of what was billed in February. Beck’s team did find business class flights for $11,223 per person.

“I think we deserve to see all of the details of what was booked — and why the Minister felt such pricey plane tickets were in the best interest of Saskatchewan people,” Love said.

Cheveldayoff has been no stranger to spending scandals in the past. Most recently, he was caught subletting his taxpayer-funded office for years, despite it being a clear breach of Legislative Assembly Services rules and being warned to stop the practice several times.

Tajinder Grewal, Shadow Minister for Advanced Education, said the issue is not whether Saskatchewan should build relationships with international partners but whether public money is being spent responsibly.

“Post-secondary students are paying steep rent, can barely afford food, and many are questioning whether they can afford to make it to graduation day,” Grewal said. “As well, Saskatchewan Polytechnic has laid off hundreds of workers due to budget cuts forced through by Ken Cheveldayoff.

“I can’t see how this Minister can justify a business class flight when he’s been nothing but a first-class failure.”

Carla Beck's team is calling on Cheveldayoff to publicly disclose the airfare class purchased for each traveller and provide a full and detailed accounting of how airfare costs reached nearly $42,000.

-30-

Latest posts

CARLA BECK’S TEAM WANTS ANSWERS ON WHO WILL PAY TO POWER DATA CENTRE JUST OUTSIDE REGINA

Scott Moe, Sask. Party Continue To Hide Details On Impact Of Massive Project

REGINA – Carla Beck’s team has written to the president and CEO of SaskPower seeking full transparency on how the new AI Data Centre project in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood, just outside of Regina, will be powered, who will pay to power it and more.

BIG RIVER SAWMILL CURTAILMENT LATEST IN SERIES OF SCOTT MOE FAILURES, BROKEN PROMISES ON FORESTRY

Jobs Lost, Communities Take Major Hits As Data Shows Forestry & Logging Activity Shrinking Under Sask. Party
SASKATOON – Carla Beck’s team is calling out Scott Moe for failing to support Saskatchewan’s forestry sector — and the communities and workers relying on it — in the wake of a major curtailment at sawmill in Big River, announced Thursday.

SCOTT MOE’S TRADE MINISTER TELLS PEOPLE STRUGGLING TO MAKE ENDS MEET TO SUCK IT UP

Warren Kaeding Tells Podcast Audience Those Complaining About Affordability They’re Lucky They Weren’t Living In The 1980s
REGINA – Scott Moe’s out-of-touch Trade Minister has dismissed widespread concerns among Saskatchewan people about the sky-high cost of living, saying things were much worse 40 years ago.

CARLA BECK'S TEAM SOUNDS ALARM AS SASKATCHEWAN LOSES 6,900 JOBS IN FIRST HALF OF 2026

Prince Albert & Northern Saskatchewan Hit Particularly Hard With 2,400 Jobs Lost

PRINCE ALBERT – Carla Beck's team is calling out Scott Moe for failing Saskatchewan workers, as the province lost nearly 7,000 jobs over the first half of 2026.

NDP Caucus Office