As Saskatchewan’s Opposition presses a authorities backbencher to launch receipts displaying he paid out of his personal pocket for personal flights to attend authorities occasions, a coverage skilled says the criticism quantities to political posturing until proof emerges that public {dollars} had been used.
Kevin Weedmark, Saskatchewan Celebration MLA representing Moosomin-Montmartre, says he paid out of pocket for flights throughout the province to attend authorities occasions on Aug. 27.
The assertion follows mounting questions from the NDP after a now-deleted “day within the life” video from an individual travelling with Weedmark was posted to social media.
Weedmark says it might have been troublesome to drive throughout the province to attend occasions in Lloydminster and Saskatoon.
The video additionally exhibits Weedmark stopping in Regina earlier than returning to Moosomin.
“Consequently, I made a decision to constitution a aircraft from a neighborhood firm at my very own private expense. There have been no taxpayer {dollars} concerned,” Weedmark stated in a press release Sept. 8.
The NDP additionally pointed to a second video from August 2025, from the individual travelling with Weedmark, displaying a bunch of people touring Jim Pattison Hospital and the Ronald McDonald Home in Saskatoon. The video has since been deleted.
“Does he anticipate us to imagine he’s paid for all of those flights? Travelling for work out of his personal pocket?” Meara Conway, the NDP’s deputy home chief and well being critic, instructed reporters Monday.
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The NDP can be questioning a flight taken on June 1, 2025, on a jet that has the identical registration quantity because the planes within the social media movies, linking flight information to Weedmark’s location at a gap reception for the primary ministers’ assembly in Saskatoon.
However Weedmark denies the NDP’s declare he flew final June to or from Saskatoon to attend that reception, saying he drove as an alternative.
“The NDP’s newest tried smear is a blatant lie,” Weedmark stated in a press release shared with media Monday.
International Information reached out to Weedmark for an interview, however didn’t hear again.
There is no such thing as a rule requiring a public official to show to the Opposition that they paid out of pocket, stated Ian Stedman, an affiliate professor who makes a speciality of authorities ethics at York College.
“Until the Opposition has some proof to counsel that he’s paying with taxpayer {dollars}, then all that is politicking and making an attempt to get him to reply in a method that places him in a nasty gentle,” Stedman stated.
In relation to spending public {dollars}, Stedman says MLAs are sometimes anticipated to take action as economically as doable.
“Even when he’s permitted to do it for his transportation, and he has a giant finances, the subsequent query is, is that the correct factor to do with public {dollars}? And one is a guidelines query, and one is a notion and public belief query,” he stated.
The matter additionally wouldn’t represent a battle of curiosity until taxpayer {dollars} had been spent the place they weren’t speculated to be, stated Stedman, together with non-public pursuits or non-permitted bills.
“A battle of curiosity arises when making a decision in your public capability to learn your self or improperly profit another person and their non-public pursuits and their non-public capability,” he stated.
“This doesn’t look like that.”
In Saskatchewan, the Board of Inside Financial system requires public officers to reveal their bills and any presents and advantages they obtain every year as a part of their conflict-of-interest statements.
The province’s battle of curiosity commissioner investigates any potential breach on the request of one other member, the premier or the legislative meeting after figuring out whether or not there are affordable and possible grounds to proceed.
“This ensures that the brink for continuing to an investigation relies upon one thing greater than innuendo, gossip, or rumour,” Maurice Herauf, Saskatchewan’s battle of curiosity commissioner, instructed International Information in an emailed assertion.
Scott Andrew, proprietor Air Andrew, the corporate working the three flights in query, instructed International Information that his firm has not acquired cash from the Saskatchewan Celebration.
Andrew can be pushing again on the NDP’s flight price estimates, which it’s sharing with the general public, assigning a price ticket of round $50,000 to every flight.
“In case you checked out that Lloydminster journey that everyone’s yapping about, if I did it at this time, it might be lower than 20,000 bucks,” Andrew stated.
The most recent MLA disclosure statements containing journey bills from April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026, are anticipated to be supplied to the Speaker on Sept. 30 and made public “shortly thereafter,” in accordance with the Legislative Meeting Service.
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