Over his eight years in office, Premier Doug Ford has billed Ontario taxpayers more than $44,000 in airfare, hotels and meals, despite recently claiming that he has “zero” public expenses.
As the Ford government weathers an expense scandal, the premier invited reporters to look into his expenses, saying he’s the “only premier in the history of this province that has a zero expense account.”
“I have zero expenses,” Ford said on July 20 during an unrelated news conference.
But an analysis of his publicly available expense documents show 90 individual expense claims filed between July 2018 and February 2022, including $26,178 on airfare, $17,752 on accommodation, and $445 on food.
All the expenses were incurred while Ford was travelling in his role as premier either within the province, Canada or to the United States for various trade missions and meetings with other premiers.
Ford’s meal expenses also includes a $5.85 charge when the premier travelled to Columbus, Ohio for a trade mission in 2019.
Asked by 680 NewsRadio why Ford claimed to have “zero expenses,” the premier’s office said every expense listed was related to government business.
“The premier’s work-related travel expenses are independently approved in accordance with the Allowable Expenses for Cabinet Ministers and Opposition Leaders guidelines,” they said.
Related:
Ford government expenses have been in the spotlight in recent weeks ever since it was revealed that over a dozen Greater Toronto Area Progressive Conservative MPPs billed taxpayers more than $100,000 for downtown Toronto hotel stays, exploiting a “special circumstances” rule meant for emergencies like severe snowstorms.
The Premier has said all will be paying back the money.