NDP MP Niki Ashton has reimbursed some of the expenses associated with a trip she took with her family over the Christmas holidays, a trip first reported by CBC News earlier this month.
Ashton said in a media statement that she traveled $17,641.12 from Thompson, Manitoba, to Ottawa, Quebec City and Montreal during the holidays to meet with unnamed “interested parties” in 2022 and early 2023, repaying some of the fees she, her husband and their two children charged taxpayers.
Ashton declined to say how much he reimbursed the federal government for the trip, saying only that he “reimbursed expenses incurred in Montreal and Quebec City.”
She told a Local Journalism Initiative reporter that the amount repaid totaled $2,900.
She said she will not reimburse some of the other expenses she incurred because she had to bring her husband, former NDP candidate Bruce Moncur, to Ottawa to help get rid of bedbugs in her apartment.
“I believe in accountability and the accuracy of the facts. I went to Ottawa to address an urgent bed bug issue that occurred in my building and apartment following spraying on December 20th. The costs were approved by the House of Commons, and I subsequently met separately with my Quebec counterparts,” Ashton said in a statement to CBC News.
Ashton would not disclose who he met with during his time in Quebec City and Montreal – saying only that he met with anonymous people to discuss French language – but said he has now repaid the money “to protect the privacy of those I met.”
New Democrat MP Niki Ashton, who rarely attends Parliament Hill, billed taxpayers $17,000 for a trip with her family over the Christmas holidays to meet with “interested parties” in Quebec, according to parliamentary records. When questioned, she would not identify those parties.
Social media posts from the trip show Moncure and her children enjoying some of Quebec City’s winter attractions, including ice slides and snow tubing at Village Vacances Valcartier, just outside the city center.
The posts also show Ashton skating with his kids and visiting the city’s German Christmas market.
The visit drew outrage as Ashton has barely been to Parliament House since the pandemic began four years ago.
Parliamentary travel records show Ashton had been to Ottawa just once, for four days, during the fall 2022 session before his visit to Quebec.
She flew to Ottawa five days after the House of Commons went on Christmas recess.
NDP MP Niki Ashton defended her House of Commons approval for taking her family to Quebec over the Christmas holidays in 2022. Ashton said she met with a linguistics group during the trip, but did not specify which group.
Ashton told Local Journalism Initiative she is “looking forward to” going to Ottawa “more frequently.”
She also said a return to Ottawa in the fall may be difficult as she is scheduled for surgery later this year to repair an anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained from skiing.
In a statement to CBC News, Ashton said media coverage of her travels has led to death threats, harassment and abuse.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh defended Ashton when the story broke, saying MPs follow the rules and require the House of Commons to approve travel applications, which he said was done in this case.
“The debate surrounding this trip, which was approved by the House of Commons, is distracting from the important work the New Democratic Party is doing on behalf of Canadians,” Ashton said in a statement Monday.
