A trade mission to Israel in December for the Surrey mayor and two high-ranking staff members involved business class plane tickets and a vacation stop, costing city taxpayers almost $27,000, CTV News has learned.
Mayor Dianne Watts defended the cost as necessary to promote the City of Surrey and its vision of a high-tech “Innovation Boulevard” as its new city core, adding that anything less than business class flights aren’t an option for her or her staff.
“I could take a boat across the ocean, but the length of time I’m away doing that wouldn’t be advantageous,” she said.
When reminded that an economy flight takes the same amount of time as a business class flight, she said, “I would say this: the amount of hours that you’re flying, my job is to make sure that when I hit the ground, I am on.”
Watts and Economic Development Manager Donna Jones took business class flights both ways, while Watts’ Executive Assistant Judy Mann flew business class in one direction. The total cost of the flights was about $15,000.
All three spent two nights before the trade mission in Israel at luxury Istanbul Hotel the Eresin Crown, which had been charged to the city. But all three reimbursed the money -- $727.13 from Donna Jones and Judy Mann, and $1,203.54 from the mayor. They paid the cost of their flights from Istanbul to Tel Aviv.
The city paid three lump sums of $3,431.58 to a lobby group, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, to organize events for the trio in Israel.
The itinerary included meetings with Israel Brain Technologies, a former ambassador, Sheba Medical Centre officials, and government officials. Also on the trip were representatives from UBC, SFU and six other health care or technology companies.
But Canadian Taxpayers Federation spokesman Jordan Bateman said $27,000 is a lot to spend for a trade mission to one of Canada’s smaller trading partners.
“This is a bit of an expensive lottery ticket for Surrey to be scratching,” said Bateman.
Complicating matters is that while the whole trip was approved in a city council committee, there was no mention of the word “Israel” in the motion, and nothing was brought up at a full city council.
“This whole trip has been shrouded in a lot of secrecy, and I wish the mayor had come out and given us a lot of information in the beginning,” he said.
Staff told CTV News they wanted to purchase economy flights but they were sold out in the Christmas rush by the time they booked on November 9.
It’s not the first time that Watts’ entourage has flown on a pricey ticket – she and Councilor Tom Gill flew business class to Colombia, South America, to bid for an international softball competition. That trip cost $11,000.
Watts said she is confident the Israel trip will pay dividends, pointing to a meeting Wednesday that she believes will result in significant investment in Surrey.
“That’s my job as mayor, to grow the economy,” she said.
