Premier Doug Ford says it is “unacceptable” that some Toronto-area cabinet ministers billed taxpayers thousands of dollars for hotel stays in the city.
The premier’s comments comes a day after government house leader Steve Clark wrote to the Speaker on Wednesday, informing her he intends to eliminate the rule that let members who live within 50 kilometres of Queen’s Park expense Toronto hotel stays in extenuating circumstances, such as snowstorms.
“Totally unacceptable. I’ve told them you’re paying back every single penny,” Ford said an unrelated news conference in Windsor on Thursday.
“That’s not the way we operate. … When I talked to caucus, you literally had to pull me off the roof.”
Publicly available expense records show that some of Ford’s cabinet ministers and other caucus members who live in and near Toronto had been using a so-called special circumstances rule on Toronto hotel expenses since about 2023.
Tourism, Culture and Gaming Minister Stan Cho was one of the cabinet ministers who came under fire for billing taxpayers for more than $16,000 in Toronto hotel expenses since 2023 despite representing the north Toronto riding of Willowdale. He has since promised to reimburse the public purse for his full amount.
The largest tally came from Hardeep Grewal, who represents Brampton East, with more than $27,000 in Toronto hotel expenses since 2023.
A spokesperson for Ford’s office said any expense “that did not meet the intent of the rules will be reimbursed to the legislature in full.”
The expenses were first reported by Global News and prompted criticism from opposition parties, who called it an abuse of taxpayer dollars.
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