NDP MP Niki Ashton has paid again among the bills associated to a visit she took along with her household over Christmas — a visit that CBC Information first reported on earlier this month.
In a media assertion, Ashton mentioned she repaid a portion of the fees she, her husband and two kids billed taxpayers as a part of a $17,641.12 journey from Thompson, Man. to Ottawa after which Quebec Metropolis and Montreal over the vacations to satisfy with unnamed “stakeholders” in 2022 and early 2023.
Ashton didn’t say how a lot she paid again to the federal treasury for the journey. She solely mentioned that she “repaid the bills incurred in Montreal and Quebec Metropolis.”
She instructed a reporter from the Native Journalism Initiative that the cash paid again totalled $2,900.
She mentioned she would not be paying again among the different bills incurred as a result of she wanted to deliver her husband, former NDP nomination candidate Bruce Moncur, to Ottawa to assist her take care of bedbugs in her residence there.
“I imagine in accountability and setting the document straight: I went to Ottawa to take care of an pressing bedbug state of affairs in my constructing and residence following spraying on December 20 — this expense was permitted by the Home of Commons. I then met individually with stakeholders in Quebec,” Ashton mentioned in her assertion to CBC Information.
Whereas Ashton has refused to say which stakeholders she met with whereas in Quebec Metropolis and Montreal — she mentioned solely that it was for discussions with unnamed folks concerning the French language — Ashton mentioned she has repaid the cash now to “shield the privateness of the stakeholders I met with.”
New Democrat MP Niki Ashton — who’s not often on Parliament Hill — billed taxpayers $17,000 for journey with household to satisfy ‘stakeholders’ in Quebec over the Christmas break, parliamentary information present. When questioned, she wouldn’t say who these stakeholders had been.
Social media posts from the journey present Moncur and the kids took in a few of Quebec Metropolis’s winter sights, together with an ice slide and snow tubing at Village Vacances Valcartier outdoors town centre.
Ashton can be seen in these posts skating along with her kids and visiting town’s German Christmas Market.
The journey prompted outrage due to how occasionally Ashton has been on Parliament Hill because the onset of the pandemic 4 years in the past.
Parliamentary journey information point out Ashton was in Ottawa on just one event — for 4 days — in the course of the fall 2022 sitting earlier than the Quebec journey.
She flew to Ottawa 5 days after the Home of Commons had already risen for its Christmas break.
NDP MP Niki Ashton defends that her journey to Quebec over the Christmas holidays in 2022 which included her household was permitted by Home of Commons. Ashton mentioned she met with linguistic teams on the journey, however wouldn’t particularly say which teams.
Ashton instructed the Native Journalism Initiative she is “wanting ahead” to attending to Ottawa “extra typically.”
She additionally mentioned it could be tough to come back again to Ottawa within the fall as a result of she has surgical procedure set for later this 12 months to take care of an ACL harm from snowboarding.
Ashton mentioned in her assertion to CBC Information that media reviews about her journey led to demise threats, harassment and abuse.
NDP Chief Jagmeet Singh defended Ashton when the story got here out, saying he expects his MPs to comply with the foundations and get the Home of Commons to approve journey claims. He mentioned that was achieved on this case.
In her Monday assertion, Ashton mentioned “the discourse round this Home of Commons-approved journey has develop into a distraction to the vital work New Democrats are doing for Canadians.”
