Sponsored foreign travels broaden MPs' views, Wayne Easter says

There are critics to the practice of accepting travel from third parties and foreign entities, but an Island MP says it's a good thing for MPs to get an on-the-ground look at how things work in different countries.

Liberal MP Wayne Easter was one of 73 MPs to take a sponsored trip in 2017. 

House of Commons Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion released his annual report last week, which documents travel that exceeds $200 and are not paid for by the MP, a political party or parliamentary association.

Liberal, Conservative and NDP MPs accepted $618,051 in transportation, accommodation and "other" fees from third parties.

• See the full list of MP sponsored travel for 2017

Easter, who represents the Malpeque, P.E.I. riding, said the practice of accepting sponsored travel is a good thing for MPs, as long as they keep an open mind and aren't led to one way of thinking by the sponsoring entity.

Concerns gifts can 'buy influence'

"I actually think it's a good thing," he said. "I hear the complaints out there on people doing international travel. I actually believe that it increases a Member of Parliament's experience, their understanding of what happens on the ground in many of those countries for their decision-making in the future."

Duff Conacher, co-founder of the government ethics watchdog group Democracy Watch, told CBC News it's "ludicrous" that MPs are permitted to accept these lavish gifts.

"We need to close this huge loophole in the MPs ethics rules that allows lobbyists to just buy influence by sending MPs, and anyone they want with them, to junkets around the world whenever they want," Conacher said.

Easter said it is important for MPs to remain impartial.

"I will say this though, you do have to go into — if you're being sponsored by some groups — to make sure that you're not being used for their purposes."

Easter has taken a sponsored trip in five of the past six years.

Island MP's most recent sponsored trip in 2017

In May 2017, Easter traveled to Budapest, Hungary, for five days to "participate and speak" at the Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defence Academies and Security Studies.

His $4,395 travel costs were paid for by the George C. Marshall Center, a German-American partnership focused on security issues internationally.

Easter said he was approached to go to this conference because of his past position as solicitor-general under the Chretien government.

There were 16 people representing various NATO countries who discussed issues "related to global security decision making, where Canada stands on that, our interests and values, and how that ties into the whole international security network," Easter said.

The issues discussed at the conference ultimately went to NATO, but Easter said he couldn't get into specifics because it was a closed meeting regarding international security.

"I very much enjoyed it, in part because I like that field," he said. "As well, to get a direct viewpoint from others who have been involved in some of these security ventures, whether it was the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, some of the intelligence surrounding some of those events, and basically what it means for the world in terms of international security, so certainly it was educational, fact-finding in an environment where you could call it as you see it without misinterpretation."

Easter added that going to conferences such as the one he went to keeps Canada among international decision-makers and ensures Canada's views are part of the discussion.

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