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Ontario Tourism Minister Stan Cho speaks to the media in February alongside Premier Doug Ford. The Toronto-area MPP promised Tuesday to reimburse more than $16,000 in hotel expenses.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government is moving to eliminate a category of special expenses after several Toronto-area Progressive Conservative MPPs billed tens of thousands of dollars in hotel stays in recent years.
PC House Leader Steve Clark, in a letter sent to Speaker Donna Skelly on Wednesday, said he would be bringing forward a motion to opposition MPPs on a committee that governs legislative members asking for agreement to eliminate the current “special circumstances” expense.
That expense allows MPPs who live within 50 kilometres of Queen’s Park to bill taxpayers for hotel stays under exceptional circumstances, such as a snowstorm.
But the government has been under fire in recent days after reporting in Global News and online outlet the Trillium discovered that more than a dozen Toronto-area MPPs have billed more than $100,000 in the past three years to stay in hotels.
That includes three MPPs from Peel Region who have billed more than $50,000 combined in the past three years.
Tourism Minister and Toronto MPP to repay $16,000 in city hotel expenses
Tourism Minister Stan Cho, who lives six kilometres from Queen’s Park, billed for more than $16,000 in Toronto hotels since 2023, including more than $11,000 last year.
Mr. Cho has said that he intends to pay the money back. The Premier’s Office has said that the legislature is responsible for approving MPP expenses according to the rules and bills that did not meet the “spirit of the rules” will be reimbursed to the legislature in full.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles on Wednesday called on the PC MPPs to repay the costs in full.
“Ford’s MPPs forgot that they were elected to do public service, not get room service with tax dollars,” Ms. Stiles said in a statement.
“Why are the people of Ontario paying for MPPs living in the GTA to stay in luxury downtown Toronto hotels?”