The Official Opposition is demanding an apology for taxpayers after highlighting expenses by the Minister responsible for SaskPower while he was at a nuclear expo in Paris last fall.

It was brought up on Tuesday and Wednesday during Question Period that there was a $3,500 bill for a Mercedes shuttle service, which included some sight-seeing. Leader Carla Beck added on Wednesday that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. She says it was about ten years ago when the then Social Services Minister, June Draude hired a chauffeur in London, along with Cabinet secretary Rick Mantey, for a total cost of $3600. Under the leadership of Premier Brad Wall, Mantey was dismissed, and Draude paid the money back. Beck stated, “If the Minister won’t apologize, the Premier should. That’s what Brad Wall would have done.”

Minister Dustin Duncan pointed out that using a van service to travel for government business is not unusual. He then brought up a bill from back when the NDP was in power, from 2006 when NDP MLA Eric Cline and Premier Lorne Calvert hired a van service in Paris for three days, at a cost of $1900, which in today’s numbers would be about $900 per day, and on the Sunday of that trip when there were no government activities planned, Duncan says the two went on a four-hour guided sight-seeing trip paid by taxpayers.