The House of Commons has released its latest summary of expenditures. In it, it shows the salary of each member of parliment (MP), as well as how much they’ve spent on travel, hospitality and contracts.
The most recent expenditure dates between Oct. 1, 2023 to Dec. 31, 2023, which represents the third quarter report for that fiscal year.
When it comes to Northern members, they were quite frugal when compared to others around the country.
NWT MP Michael McLeod spent nothing on hospitality, while his travel expenditures totalled a little less than $27,000.
It’s not exactly cheap to fly back and forth between Ottawa and the NWT. According to Expedia, a standard flight to Ottawa from Yellowknife in economy class is more than $1,100.
And in terms of contracts, which is defined as spending on advertising, gifts, office leases and operations, McLeod spent a comparatively low number of $14,202.89.
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout spent more than $76,000 in travel and nearly $33,000 on contracts, while Yukon MP Brendan Hanley was in between both McLeod and Idlout in terms of travel at just under $50,000. He’s also in the middle for expenditures on contracts at around $28,000.
For McLeod, spending little isn’t a new feat. When you compare the numbers to the second quarter of 2023, hospitality is the only area that took a drop compared to previous quarters at just $778.26. He kept his travel and contract expenditures on par, though.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spent just less than $2,000 in MP travel in the third quarter as all of his official travel is covered by the federal government, while Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre reportedly spent nothing in MP travel. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh spent close to $70,000 in travel and more than $45,000 on contracts and Green Party leader Elizabeth May spent just over $6,000 on her travel and more than $17,000 in contracts.