Lobby Watch: MPs reveal cost details of Goldcorp-funded Guatemala trip

So, remember that Goldcorp-funded fact-finding mission last summer that whisked five parliamentarians -- Conservatives MPs Dave Van Kesteren and Dean Allison, who also chairs the foreign affairs committee,  Liberal Senator Mac Harb and MP Massimo Pacetti and New Democrat turned Independent Bruce Hyer -- off to Guatemala to tour the company's local mining operations?

Well, with three of the four MPs on the manifest (confidential to M. Pacetti: tick, tick, tick) having dutifully filed the required disclosure statements within the 60 day limit, we can now put a price tag on the three-day jaunt.

All told, the MPs racked up just over $4,000 in travel costs per MP/senator, which covered plane fare ($3,500, which represents the cost of an 'equivalent' commercial ticket, as the flight was on a private jet), two nights at an unnamed hotel ($493), miscellaneous "food and hospitality" ($103.71) and, finally, what is variously described as a "vest","fleece" or "t-shirt" and a bottle of rum ($50).

(Those statements can now be found on the ethics commissioner's website: Allison, Hyer, Van Kesteren)

According to the supporting document filed by all three MPs, the cost was calculated by former Liberal cabinet minister turned Hill and Knowlton lobbyist Don Boudria, whose firm represents Goldcorp.

Original Article
Source: CBC
Author: Kady O'Malley