The NDP has received a $1,700 fee estimate for a Freedom of Information request for Scott Moe’s expenses for a single year.
“This is shocking and wrong,” said NDP Ethics and Democracy Critic David Forbes. “Premier and minister’s expenses should be fully public, full stop.”
Saskatchewan discloses the least information of any province on government expenses:
- Alberta provides ministerial office expenses and international travel expenses
- British Columbia provides ministerial and Deputy Ministers’ expenses including itemized receipts
- Manitoba provides quarterly expense reports for ministerial travel and annual reports of ministerial office expenses
- New Brunswick provides expenses for Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Executive Directors
- Newfoundland and Labrador publishes Ministerial Expense Reimbursement Expense Reports twice a year
- Nova Scotia provides Ministerial Expense Summaries
- Quebec provides quarterly summaries of travel for Ministers and senior officials
- Ontario discloses travel, hotel accommodation, meal, and hospitality expenses for each MPP
- Prince Edward Island publishes quarterly Public Disclosure Expense Reports
Ministerial travel in the last fiscal year has increased 53 per cent year over year to a total of $321,248. Scott Moe’s travel bill was $84,868, a nearly 86 per cent increase from the $45,628 then-Premier Wall spent in his last full year in office.
No detailed information is publicly available on expenses for the Premier and cabinet inside the province.
“The Sask. Party is becoming more and more entitled while becoming less and less transparent,” Forbes said. “We know this is a party that puts the priorities of the very wealthy and well-connected before regular families. We will continue to fight to have all of these expenses made public, because the people of Saskatchewan deserve to know that their money is being spent for their benefit.”