Minister Donna Harpauer’s travel expense form, posted on the Government of Saskatchewan Party website, shows she took a chartered plane with Good Spirit Air Service on March 25, traveling 400 kilometers from Regina to North Battleford.
The flight cost $7,872.60.
A representative for Harpauer said she was not available for an interview and provided a statement.
“Following travel restrictions over the past two years due to the pandemic, the minister has been able to visit a number of areas across the province,” James Parker said in an email.
“For many years, finance ministers toured the province to discuss the budget.  The tours are a good way to connect with people and provide more detailed information on how the provincial budget is working for them and their community.”
The luncheon attended by Harpauer was hosted by the North Battleford Chamber of Commerce at Porta Bella Restaurant.
Two days earlier, he tabled the 2022-2023 budget in the legislature, announcing an increase in property and smoker taxes and a six percent provincial sales tax on entertainment, gyms, concerts, museums and sporting events.
“This is a flight that could very easily be replaced by a car ride,” said opposition NDP leader Carla Beck.
“We’re seeing people making changes to their summer plans … because they can’t afford gas, and we’re seeing a minister on a flight spend as much as someone would in four months.”
Beck said politicians need to lead by example, especially when asking residents to bend over backwards for a budget that raised the cost of living for people.
“If they don’t understand how hard things are for people — and maybe they don’t, if they only see people from the sky on an $8,000 flight — they should go out and talk to people,” Beck said.  noted that he has driven thousands of kilometers in recent weeks to meet people across the province.
Premier Scott Moe, Education Minister Dustin Duncan and Rural Health Minister Everett Hindley also took a private Good Spirit Air Service flight from Regina to the province’s north on January 10.  The trip was for a funding announcement and to visit four communities.
That flight cost nearly $16,000, with each of the three costing $5,301.86.  Moe, Duncan and Hindley were unavailable for comment.
“It is standard practice to share costs and coordinate charter flights where possible in order to reduce the cost of air travel,” government spokesman Matthew Glover said in a statement.
He said driving is the main mode of provincial travel for ministers, but charter flights are periodically used for longer distances or when it affects other commitments.
Since the government shut down its airline, Executive Air, in 2017, it has been spending about $200,000 to $400,000 a year for cabinet members to travel in and out of the province, Glover said.
He said that’s far less than the $4 million spent on Executive Air in 2006-07 by the NDP government at the time.
Since March, the Saskatchewan NDP has been calling on the government to provide financial relief to residents as they deal with rising fuel costs, inflation and taxes.
The New Democrats have called on the government to temporarily halt the province’s fuel tax collection, like Alberta, and increase royalties on natural resource companies that are reaping windfall profits.
Moe said no decision has been made on such relief because the province has a deficit of nearly $500 million to pay.
He said if the budget is balanced sooner than expected and there is a surplus from natural resource revenue, his administration will look at ways to return dollars to residents in a way that benefits everyone.