Scott Hennig of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says the Alberta government should cut back on the use of charter planes in light of its $6.9-billion deficit. (CBC)The Alberta government spent $383,000 on private charter planes for Conservative MLAs, cabinet ministers and some bureaucrats, even though the province has its own fleet of planes, CBC News has learned.

The information is contained in 2½ years' worth of charter flight records obtained by CBC through a request under freedom-of-information legislation.

According to the records, the government chartered planes 90 times between January 2007 — shortly after Ed Stelmach became premier — and May 2009.

More than $80,000 was spent on flights between Edmonton and Calgary, a route that commercial airlines fly more than 20 times a day.

"It basically says that they don't want to wait in line for an hour or two to get on a commercial flight," said Scott Hennig, Alberta director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. They would "rather just jump on and fly down."

On Nov. 13, 2008, the province rented a plane for $5,000 to take Environment Minister Rob Renner and his assistant from Edmonton to Lethbridge. A few hours later, the plane dropped Renner off in Calgary and then brought his assistant back to Edmonton.

In another case, former finance minister Lyle Oberg flew to Calgary and had the plane wait overnight so he could return to Edmonton the next morning, at a cost of more than $3,000.

Rules needed, NDP leader says

The Alberta government is grappling with a $6.9-billion deficit, and Hennig called the expenditure on charters a huge waste.

NDP Leader Brian Mason wants the province to create rules to govern when MLAs can charter planes. (CBC)"These guys should be turning over every single rock to find savings, and you would think that one of the easiest ones would be … to cut back on charter flights and take more commercial flights."

Alberta Treasury Board president Lloyd Snelgrove acknowledged the expenditures on private planes are a problem that the province is attempting to change.

"We research other options for them," he said of MLAs who want to travel. "So it's not a given that someone phones and they get a plane."

Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason is calling on the government to require MLAs to take commercial flights if a government-owned plane is not available.

"It's up to the government to restrain itself, put some rules in place and start protecting the public's money," he said.

The province has cut down on the number of planes it charters, compared with what was spent while Ralph Klein was Alberta premier — nearly $1 million on about 250 charter flights between 2004 and 2007.

The Stelmach Tories have spent about a third of that amount within a similar time period.

The documents also show none of the charters from the last three years were for out-of-province flights, something which happened a handful of times while Klein was premier.

In addition to the charter flights, the province uses four of its own planes for government travel at a cost of almost $5 million last year.

With files from Charles Rusnell