Exhaustion was the reason for the use of a private plane that cost provincial taxpayers $8,000.

So says Sask. Party Finance Minister Donna Harpauer (pictured) after flying from Regina to North Battleford, and then on to her constituency in Humboldt on March 25.

The controversial trip came shortly after the Finance Minister delivered the provincial budget, and was booked for a number of engagements afterwards, to “sell” the budget. Harpauer said after a large number of commitments before the trip to North Battleford, she was exhausted, and didn’t feel is was safe for her to drive the four hours to the chamber of commerce luncheon.

She says she had no idea how much the flight would cost, and seemed a little surprised at the amount of blow back from the trip. Harpauer says her travel bills are very low. She pointed to last year, where she says she spent just over $11,000 for the entire year on travel, which was also year two of the pandemic. She says the Sask. Party Government has brought costs of government travel down quite a bit, since it took office.

The Sask. Party government released numbers in terms of flights taken by its MLAs in the province and flights taken by the NDP in its last approximate 8 years in power. The Sask. Party says the NDP logged between 1999 and 2008 prior to the writ being dropped, 248 plane trips. The Sask.Party says from 2014 up till now in 2022 their members have taken 29 flights.  That time frame does include the two years during the pandemic.