This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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Alberta premier candidate, Thomas Lukaszuk, has acknowledged and apologized for spending more than $20,000 in telephone expenses during an overseas trip. Mr. Lukaszuk embarked on a journey of personal nature to Poland, Israel, and the West Bank in October 2012 as a guest of the Simon Weisenthal Centre’s Compassion to Action program.
Although Mr. Lukaszuk reportedly had the entire trip on his “private time,” he claims to have had no other option but to do some government work because there was no real “private time.” Being the Deputy Premier at the time of the trip, he mentioned that “an urgent government legal matter arose that required my attention. There were a lot of long conversations, and proceedings with lawyers and the courts. The case itself is under a court-ordered publication ban, so it is against the law for me to provide details.” Lukaszuk confessed that the data and roaming charges were “an unwelcome surprise” and so “my staff and Executive Council staff fought with the telephone company to have the charges reduced. They were unsuccessful. The bill was begrudgingly paid, and publicly reported in February 2013 as part of my office expenses.”
Whereas on the other hand, NDP MLA Rachel Notley alleged that the $20,000 bill is another proof that there needs to be a public inquiry into all government spending, especially those which the auditor general’s report isn’t able to uncover. It was alleged that “what this indicates is that another minister didn’t care, didn’t take the time, just assumed that it was a bottomless pit of taxpayers dollars for their disposal.”
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