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Minister Hedderson hiding travel claim to Qatar? October 6, 2005
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Opposition Leader Gerry Reid is asking why Minister Tom Hedderson did not
claim his trip to Qatar earlier this year through his departmental travel
budget, but instead made the College of the North Atlantic pay for his
expenses. "Minister Hedderson has a travel budget of over $32,000 in his department," said Mr. Reid. "Instead of using this budget to pay his expenses to Qatar, the minister submitted his claims to the College of the North Atlantic so that they wouldn’t show up in his departmental travel. In an Access to Information request made this summer by our office, this trip wasn’t even mentioned. It now appears that all documentation was forwarded to the College of the North Atlantic. "This is the same government that cut millions of dollars from the budget of the College of the North Atlantic, cut programming and laid off staff to save money, and is now submitting expensive travel claims to be paid out of the College’s budget. Minister Hedderson either does not want to spend his entire travel budget on one trip or is trying to hide these expense claims in the offices of the College of the North Atlantic." Reid says that in light of government’s apparent oversight to indicate that Minister Hedderson claimed trips through the College’s travel budget in a previous Access to Information request, a second request will now be made to the College of the North Atlantic to receive these details. Reid says he will also be including a request to see if any relatives of Minister Hedderson received any reimbursement for travel with the minister on this trip. "In light of the recent circumstances regarding the firing of the College’s President and board, the minister accepting an expensive watch as a gift from the Qatari government, and the missing details of the minister’s trip, we are calling on all of these documents to be released publicly in the coming days. If there is nothing to hide, I expect the minister to release the full details of his trip before they are obtained through the province’s Access to Information laws."
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